Microwave Synthesis of Oxide Materials

Dear Colleagues,

The general topic of energy is regarded as one of the most important areas for any research and development activities at the start of the twenty-first century. In this context, considerable research efforts have recently been dedicated to renovating the conventional synthetic chemical industry by introducing new green chemistry concepts, where the energy requirements for chemical processing or synthesis are drastically reduced. In this context, a vast number of novel chemical synthesis techniques have been developed during recent decades. Such innovative techniques include combustion, sol–gel and co-precipitation methods, sono-chemistry, hydrothermal synthesis, and microwave-assisted techniques.

This Special Issue is dedicated to microwave-assisted synthesis techniques for oxide materials. The technique of microwave-assisted synthesis as well as oxide materials are two fields of research that have attracted massive attention recently. Microwave synthesis techniques are involved with massive reductions in synthesis temperature and time compared to conventional solid-state synthesis and can thus be classified as a green chemistry technique due to the resulting reduced energy consumption. Oxide materials, on the other hand, are a class of materials that offer a waste range of possible functional properties such as ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity, ionic conductivity, and superconductivity to only name a few. The assessment of the feasibility to synthesize certain oxides by microwave-assisted techniques requires that not only the phase purity of the resulting products be functional but also the respective oxide be present, e.g., magnetic oxides should not display inferior magnetic properties if synthesized by microwave compared to conventional synthesis. The same needs to be true for ferroelectric, ionically conductive, superconducting, or any other functional oxides.

This Special Issue is aimed at receiving submissions in the field of microwave-assisted synthesis of oxides, covering aspects such as novel microwave-assisted synthesis procedures for all classes of oxides, the study of unusual particle morphologies obtained by microwave-assisted synthesis, and general considerations concerning the high efficiency of microwave-assisted synthesis, for example, by elaborating on the coupling mechanisms between microwaves and oxide materials. In the case of known oxide phases, which are synthesized by microwave-assisted techniques for the first time, it would be advantageous if the synthesized products are characterized in terms of phase purity, crystal structure, and the respective functionality that is relevant in such oxides.

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• microwave synthesis
• oxides
• green chemistry