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Electrocatalysts for Sustainable Energy and Chemical Synthesis Applications

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Catalytic Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 10428

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alessandro Monteverde

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Guest Editor

Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politechnic of Turin, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 1029 Turin, Italy
Interests: electrification of chemical industry; hydrogen; electrochemical engineering; process intensification; reactor design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Luigi Osmieri

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Guest Editor

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM, USA
Interests: PGM-free catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction; electrocatalysis; polymer electrolyte fuel cells; electrochemistry for energy applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increase of global warming issues caused by greenhouse gases emissions related to low efficient conversion processes and chemical industry processes is becoming everyday more impactful on our lives and on the environment. To reduce these emissions, the use of renewable energy sources must become prominent in the near future. Over the past years, the cost of electricity generated from wind and solar has fallen 67% and 86%, respectively, and is now competitive to fossil fuel-based electricity generation technologies. This electric cost reduction opens a huge opportunity for the electrification of the chemical industry. In order to efficiently convert and store the energy from renewables, electrochemical processes are essentials. At the same time, the energy from renewables can be conveniently utilized to produce complex organic chemicals from biomass, CO₂ and other simple molecules.

In this view, electrocatalysts plays a crucial role, since they enable the lowering of the overpotentials needed for the operation of electrochemical devices.

At the same time, it is necessary to stay away, as much as possible, from the massive use of noble metals for the manufacturing of catalysts, due to their high cost and low earth-abundance, which could cause exaggerate cost rising and raw materials supply issues.

This Special Issue on “Electrocatalysts for Sustainable Energy and Chemical Synthesis Applications” welcomes the submission of manuscripts in the form of original research articles, short communications, and reviews. The topics include noble metal-free catalysts for all types of electrochemical reactions involved in energy conversion and storage devices (batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers, etc.) and catalysts for electrochemical synthesis processes. Examples are electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction, oxygen evolution, hydrogen evolution, organic molecules oxidation, electrochemical hydrogenation, ammonia electrosynthesis and CO₂ electroreduction reactions.

Insights on innovative catalysts synthesis strategies and materials characterization, as well as correlation between materials properties and electrocatalytic activity and catalysts durability are particularly welcome. Furthermore, the use of innovative techniques for electrode production able to control nanostructured properties are also kindly invited.

Dr. Alessandro Monteverde Videla
Dr. Luigi Osmieri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Fuel cells
Electrolysis
CO2 reduction
Electrosynthesis
Electrochemical hydrogenation
Nanostructured electrocatalysts
3D electrodes
Renewable energy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 9078 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Selectivity of Mixed Iron-Cobalt Spinels Deposited on a N,S-Doped Mesoporous Carbon Support in the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Media

by Aldona Kostuch, Joanna Gryboś, Szymon Wierzbicki, Zbigniew Sojka and Krzysztof Kruczała

Materials 2021, 14(4), 820; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14040820 - 9 Feb 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2401

Abstract

One of the practical efforts in the development of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts applicable to fuel cells and metal-air batteries is focused on reducing the cost of the catalysts production. Herein, we have examined the ORR performance of cheap, non-noble metal based catalysts comprised of nanosized mixed Fe-Co spinels deposited on N,S-doped mesoporous carbon support (N,S-MPC). The effect of the chemical and phase composition of the active phase on the selectivity of catalysts in the ORR process in alkaline media was elucidated by changing the iron content. The synthesized materials were thoroughly characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy (RS). Detailed S/TEM/EDX and Raman analysis of the phase composition of the synthesized ORR catalysts revealed that the dominant mixed iron-cobalt spinel is accompanied by minor fractions of bare cobalt and highly dispersed spurious iron oxides (Fe₂O₃ and Fe₃O₄). The contribution of individual phases and their degree of agglomeration on the carbon support directly influence the selectivity of the obtained catalysts. It was found that the mixed iron-cobalt spinel single phase gives rise to significant improvement of the catalyst selectivity towards the desired 4e⁻ reaction pathway, in comparison to the reference bare cobalt spinel, whereas spurious iron oxides play a negative role for the catalyst selectivity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electrocatalysts for Sustainable Energy and Chemical Synthesis Applications)

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16 pages, 3277 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Facile Synthesis of the Amorphous Carbon Coated Fe-N-C Nanocatalyst with Efficient Activity for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Acidic and Alkaline Media

by Linglei Jin, Baikang Zhu, Xuesong Wang, Le Zhang, Debin Song, Jian Guo and Hengcong Tao

Materials 2020, 13(20), 4551; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13204551 - 13 Oct 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2390

Abstract

With the assistance of surfactant, Fe nanoparticles are supported on g-C₃N₄ nanosheets by a simple one-step calcination strategy. Meanwhile, a layer of amorphous carbon is coated on the surface of Fe nanoparticles during calcination. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) were used to characterize the morphology, structure, and composition of the catalysts. By electrochemical evaluate methods, such as linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV), it can be found that Fe₂₅-N-C-800 (calcinated in 800 °C, Fe loading content is 5.35 wt.%) exhibits excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and selectivity. In 0.1 M KOH (potassium hydroxide solution), compared with the 20 wt.% Pt/C, Fe₂₅-N-C-800 performs larger onset potential (0.925 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) and half-wave potential (0.864 V vs. RHE) and limits current density (2.90 mA cm⁻², at 400 rpm). In 0.1 M HClO₄, it also exhibits comparable activity. Furthermore, the Fe₂₅-N-C-800 displays more excellent stability and methanol tolerance than Pt/C. Therefore, due to convenience synthesis strategy and excellent catalytic activity, the Fe₂₅-N-C-800 will adapt to a suitable candidate for non-noble metal ORR catalyst in fuel cells. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electrocatalysts for Sustainable Energy and Chemical Synthesis Applications)

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Review

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44 pages, 6101 KiB

Open AccessReview

Carbon-Based Composites as Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Media

by Paweł Stelmachowski, Joanna Duch, David Sebastián, María Jesús Lázaro and Andrzej Kotarba

Materials 2021, 14(17), 4984; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14174984 - 31 Aug 2021

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4781

Abstract

This review paper presents the most recent research progress on carbon-based composite electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which are of interest for application in low temperature water electrolyzers for hydrogen production. The reviewed materials are primarily investigated as active and stable replacements aimed at lowering the cost of the metal electrocatalysts in liquid alkaline electrolyzers as well as potential electrocatalysts for an emerging technology like alkaline exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyzers. Low temperature electrolyzer technologies are first briefly introduced and the challenges thereof are presented. The non-carbon electrocatalysts are briefly overviewed, with an emphasis on the modes of action of different active phases. The main part of the review focuses on the role of carbon–metal compound active phase interfaces with an emphasis on the synergistic and additive effects. The procedures of carbon oxidative pretreatment and an overview of metal-free carbon catalysts for OER are presented. Then, the successful synthesis protocols of composite materials are presented with a discussion on the specific catalytic activity of carbon composites with metal hydroxides/oxyhydroxides/oxides, chalcogenides, nitrides and phosphides. Finally, a summary and outlook on carbon-based composites for low temperature water electrolysis are presented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electrocatalysts for Sustainable Energy and Chemical Synthesis Applications)

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