Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Chemistry of Energy Conversion and Storage

2016; Wiley; Volume: 11; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/asia.201600357

1861-4728

Jaephil Cho, Liming Dai, Dirk M. Guldi,

Various Chemistry Research Topics

Extra energy required: One of the most critical issues facing society today is energy – where do we get it from, how do we use it, how do we store it, how can we save it. Chemists play a decisive role in facing these challenges to secure a ready supply of energy for generations to come. To highlight the importance of this topic and the contributions that chemists around the world make, this special issue is dedicated to energy conversion and storage. Graphic designed by Freepik. http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/ batteries_800894.htm An energy crisis, along with global warming, is emerging, and the role of scientists to address these issues becomes increasingly important nowadays. In recent years, the number of portable electronic devices has risen so dramatically that such devices have become ubiquitous; demands in powering them have increased in parallel. Therefore, questions concerning how to store and use energy properly are important and need to be addressed promptly, as is the development of alternative energies. However, unfortunately, various alternative and renewable energy technologies, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal energy, basically cannot produce a constant amount of energy and also strongly depend on time and location. Thus, studies on energy storage and transfer have become more and more important for the development of new energy technologies. As the current generation of vehicles is one of the largest emission source of green-house gas and biggest consumer of fossil fuels, significant efforts have been devoted to develop new vehicles powered by batteries, fuel cells and/or supercapacitors. However, the production costs for most of the recently developed renewable energy sources are significantly higher than that of petroleum, coal, gas, and nuclear energy, and thus many challenges still need to be overcome. Along with recent advances in nanotechnologies, large research and development programs have been initiated to focus on energy conversion devices that convert solar energy or chemical energy into electric energy as well as those that can store and transport electric power. In particular, modifications of the structures and particle sizes of energy conversion and storage materials which lead to an improved efficiency are taking the spotlight. In this regard, we hope that this special issue focusing on energy conversion and storage provides new insights into various fundamental and practical issues important to lithium-ion batteries, photocatalysts, electrochemical catalysts, and solar cells. Contributions from the groups of Xinliang Feng on a three-dimensional polymeric carbon nitride/graphene framework, Haoshen Zhou on generating microspheres composed of spinel Li4Ti5O12 and of lithium-rich and manganese-rich layered oxides, respectively, Kisuk Kang on the electronic structure and intrinsic charge transport mechanism in Li2S, and Yu-Guo Guo and co-workers on nano/micro-structured Si/C composites have addressed the challenges to improve the energy density of batteries. Focus Reviews by Dong Wook Chang and Jong-Beom Baek and by Shunichi Fukuzumi, Wonwoo Nam et al. highlight recent advances in nitrogen-doped graphene for photocatalytic hydrogen generation and photocatalytic water oxidation by persulfate, respectively. Finally, as Very Important Papers (VIP), Gihoon Cha, Patrik Schmuki and Marco Altomare report on various optical properties of anodic TiO2 nanotube layers directly transferred as self-standing membranes onto quartz substrates, while Ludovico Valli, Gabriele Giancane et al. propose a new approach for improving the open circuit voltage of ZnO-based dye-sensitized solar cells. Jaephil Cho studied at Kyungpook National University and Iowa State University, Ames, and worked with Steve W. Martin at the latter institution for his PhD (awarded in 1995). Currently, he is a Professor and Dean of Research Affairs of Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST), Director of the Green Energy Materials Research Center, and Director of the Samsung SDI-UNIST Future Batteries Research Center. His current research is focused on high-energy-density cathode and anode materials and their direct implantation in full-cell systems, as well as metal-air batteries and redox flow batteries for energy storage. Liming Dai joined Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in fall 2009 as the Kent Hale Smith Professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering. He is also director of the Center of Advanced Science and Engineering for Carbon (CASE4Carbon). He received a BSc degree from Zhejiang University in 1983 and a PhD from the Australian National University in 1991. Dr. Dai′s expertise covers the synthesis, functionalization, and device fabrication of conjugated polymers and carbon nanomaterials for energy-related and biomedical applications. Dirk M. Guldi completed both his undergraduate studies (1988) and PhD (1990) at the University of Cologne (Germany). Following postdoctoral appointments at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA), the Hahn-Meitner Institute Berlin (1992), and Syracuse University, he joined the faculty of the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory in 1995. He was promoted a year later from assistant to associate professional specialist, and remained affiliated to Notre Dame until 2004. Since 2004, he is Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen.