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Applied Sciences
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Metal-Oxide Nanostructures: From Photocatalysis to Energy
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Metal-Oxide Nanostructures: From Photocatalysis to Energy

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Chemical and Molecular Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2020) | Viewed by 12584

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Daniela Nunes

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Guest Editor
CENIMAT|i3N, Department of Materials Science, School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Interests: material characterization; production and structural characterization of oxide-based thin films; oxide-based nanostructures; solution synthesis routes; microwave synthesis; photocatalysis; sensors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ana Pimentel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Materials Science, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: metal oxide nanostructures; photocatalysis; sensing; microwave irradiation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The need for the sustainable exploitation of natural resources and correct energy management is urgent. Thus, pursuing new materials is of great relevance, and metal-oxides appear as attractive options. These materials have interesting properties, and their application and performance depend directly on their nature, size, shape, surface area, etc. They can be employed in different kinds of applications; in fact, titanium, zinc, tungsten, copper, tin, vanadium, iron, and nickel oxides have been proved to act efficiently as photocatalysts, with enhanced performances when employed as binary oxide systems. The photodegradation of pollutants is attractive due to its environmentally friendly aspect, simplicity, and efficiency, reducing the final cost of contaminant removal treatments, for example, in waste water cleaning processes. Moreover, the abatement of polluting gases or their photoreduction for fuel generation using these sorts of materials is also interesting, and in the case of carbon dioxide (CO2), it could have a global impact in terms of climate change mitigation, contributing to the circular CO2 economy. This Special Issue aims to give an overview of recent advances of metal-oxide nanostructured materials that can contribute to water purification and energy production and saving, simultaneously maximizing the exploitation of our natural resources while protecting the environment.

We invite colleagues to contribute to this Special Issue. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Advanced materials for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical applications, as well as energy production and storage;
  • Nanostructured metal-oxide materials (TiO2, ZnO, WO3, CuXO, SnOX, VOX, Fe2O3, and NiO);
  • The application of photocatalysis for water treatment, disinfection, and air depollution;
  • Solar water splitting;
  • CO2 photoreduction and conversion;
  • Selective photooxidation processes;
  • Innovative synthesis and characterization techniques;
  • Thee upscaling of nanomaterials technologies for energy applications;
  • New technology trends and applications.

Prof. Dr. Daniela Nunes
Dr. Ana Pimentel
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. Applied Sciences 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 2400 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.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 4801 KiB  
Article
TiO2 Nanostructured Films for Electrochromic Paper Based-Devices
by Daniela Nunes, Tomas Freire, Andrea Barranger, João Vieira, Mariana Matias, Sonia Pereira, Ana Pimentel, Neusmar J. A. Cordeiro, Elvira Fortunato and Rodrigo Martins
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(4), 1200; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10041200 - 11 Feb 2020
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4730
Abstract
Electrochromic titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanostructured films were grown on gold coated papers using a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method at low temperature (80 °C). Uniform nanostructured films fully covered the paper substrate, while maintaining its flexibility. Three acids, i.e., acetic, hydrochloric and nitric [...] Read more.
Electrochromic titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanostructured films were grown on gold coated papers using a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method at low temperature (80 °C). Uniform nanostructured films fully covered the paper substrate, while maintaining its flexibility. Three acids, i.e., acetic, hydrochloric and nitric acids, were tested during syntheses, which determined the final structure of the produced films, and consequently their electrochromic behavior. The structural characteristics of nanostructured films were correlated with electrochemical response and reflectance modulation when immersed in 1 M LiClO4-PC (lithium perchlorate with propylene carbonate) electrolyte, nevertheless the material synthesized with nitric acid resulted in highly porous anatase films with enhanced electrochromic performance. The TiO2 films revealed a notable contrast behavior, reaching for the nitric-based film optical modulations of 57%, 9% and 22% between colored and bleached states, at 250, 550 and 850 nm, respectively in reflectance mode. High cycling stability was also obtained performing up to 1500 cycles without significant loss of the electrochromic behavior for the nitric acid material. The approach developed in this work proves the high stability and durability of such devices, together with the use of paper as substrate that aggregates the environmentally friendly, lightweight, flexibility and recyclability characters of the substrate to the microwave synthesis features, i.e., simplicity, celerity and enhanced efficiency/cost balance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metal-Oxide Nanostructures: From Photocatalysis to Energy)
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8 pages, 5846 KiB  
Article
Morphology-Controllable Hydrothermal Synthesis of Zirconia with the Assistance of a Rosin-Based Surfactant
by Chen Guo, Peng Wang, Shengliang Liao, Hongyan Si, Shangxing Chen, Guorong Fan and Zongde Wang
Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(19), 4145; https://doi.org/10.3390/app9194145 - 3 Oct 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2127
Abstract
With the assistance of a rosin-based surfactant, dehydroabietyltrimethyl ammonium bromine (DTAB), well-dispersed hollow cube-like zirconia particles were firstly synthesized by the hydrothermal treatment of ZrOCl2 aqueous solutions. The introduction of DTAB is crucial for improving the dispersion and regularity of the as-synthesized [...] Read more.
With the assistance of a rosin-based surfactant, dehydroabietyltrimethyl ammonium bromine (DTAB), well-dispersed hollow cube-like zirconia particles were firstly synthesized by the hydrothermal treatment of ZrOCl2 aqueous solutions. The introduction of DTAB is crucial for improving the dispersion and regularity of the as-synthesized sample. After calcination, the crystal size of the calcined samples increased, and the edge angle of the cube-like particles became round accordingly. Finally, a hollow spherical morphology was formed for the sample calcined at 923 K. The as-synthesized sample showed big surface area of 146.78 m2/g and large pore volume of 0.23 cm3/g. With the increase of calcination temperature, the surface area and pore volume of the samples decreased significantly, and the pore size increased accordingly. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metal-Oxide Nanostructures: From Photocatalysis to Energy)
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17 pages, 4120 KiB  
Article
Green Synthesis of a Cu/SiO2 Catalyst for Efficient H2-SCR of NO
by Esteban Gioria, F. Albana Marchesini, Analía Soldati, Antonella Giorello, Jose L. Hueso and Laura Gutierrez
Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(19), 4075; https://doi.org/10.3390/app9194075 - 29 Sep 2019
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 5276
Abstract
In this work, the synthesis of Cu/SiO2 catalysts starting from pre-formed copper nanoparticle (CuNP) colloidal suspensions was carried out. Two different protocols for the CuNP synthesis were tested: (i) a green approach using water as solvent and ascorbic acid as reducer and [...] Read more.
In this work, the synthesis of Cu/SiO2 catalysts starting from pre-formed copper nanoparticle (CuNP) colloidal suspensions was carried out. Two different protocols for the CuNP synthesis were tested: (i) a green approach using water as solvent and ascorbic acid as reducer and stabilizing agent, and (ii) a second solvothermal method involving the use of diethylene glycol as solvent, sodium hypophosphite (NaH2PO2) as reducer, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as stabilizing agents. In addition, and for the sake of comparison, a third catalyst was prepared by solid state conventional grinding of CuO with SiO2. The catalysts were tested in the environmentally relevant catalytic reduction of NOX with H2, in a temperature range from 300 to 500 °C. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature programmed reduction (TPR) cycles, Raman spectroscopy, and N2 adsorption for specific surface BET measurements. From these techniques CuO and Cu(0) species were detected depending on the synthesis protocol. CuNP size and size distribution in the colloid suspensions were determined by transmission electronic microscopy (TEM). The catalyst prepared from the aqueous suspension (CuAsc/SiO2) exhibited higher NO conversion (100%) and selectivity (85%) toward N2 at the lower reaction evaluated temperature (300 °C). The CuCTAB/SiO2 catalyst obtained by the solvothermal approach showed activity at high reaction temperature (400 °C) preferentially. The metal–support mechanical mixture exhibited a negligible response at low temperature and low conversion (68%) and selectivity (88%) at 500 °C. Nanoparticle size and distribution on the support, together with the metal–support interaction, were postulated as the most plausible parameters governing the catalytic performance of the different Cu/SiO2 materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metal-Oxide Nanostructures: From Photocatalysis to Energy)
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