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J. Compos. Sci.
Special Issues
Opportunities for Composites in the Future Energy Systems
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Opportunities for Composites in the Future Energy Systems

A special issue of Journal of Composites Science (ISSN 2504-477X). This special issue belongs to the section "Composites Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 20909

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yiji Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
Interests: energy storage & conversion; energy systems; renewable/clean energy research; alternative fuels
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ke Tang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
Interests: heat and mass transfer; porous material; nano materials; thermal energy systems; renewable energy technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Composite materials are widely utilised and adopted for a range of applications in energy systems for residential, commercial and industrial purposes. For example, composite nanofluids are particularly used in the capture and storing of thermal sources such as solar energy, composite phase change materials are widely used for thermal management in buildings or battery technologies, composite materials are added at nano or micro levels to form blends in fuel energy systems and improve their combustion performance, sorption composite materials are employed to improve heating and cooling. The technological development of innovative composite materials is a driving force for the success of future energy systems in the domestic, industrial and transport sectors, providing services such as heating, cooling or electricity.

This Special Issue aims to collect review or original research articles and offer a platform for researchers working in applied engineering of composite materials.

Studies on, but not limited to, the following topics are particularly welcome:

  • Utilisation of composite nanofluids to improve the heat transfer performance of energy systems for solar harvesting, residential use in buildings, industrial heat recovery
  • Preparation, characterisation and mechanisms of newly developed composite materials
  • Composite phase change materials for thermal energy storage
  • Graphene-based composites for electrochemical energy storage
  • Innovative composite materials for offshore turbines, electricity transmission, or fuel cells

Dr. Yiji Lu
Dr. Ke Tang
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. Journal of Composites Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1800 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

  • Composite Phase Change Materials
  • Composite Nanofluids
  • Preparation, characterisation,and mechanisms
  • Composites in Future Energy Systems
  • Energy Storage
  • Renewable Energy Capture: Solar or Wind Energy
  • Blanding composites into Fuels
  • Fuel Cells

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 6907 KiB  
Article
Impact Energy Absorption Analysis of Shape Memory Hybrid Composites
by Huma Ozair, Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman, Abrar H. Baluch, Khurram Yaqoob, Ibrahim Qazi and Abdul Wadood
J. Compos. Sci. 2022, 6(12), 365; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs6120365 - 2 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1792
Abstract
Shape memory hybrid composites are hybrid structures with fiber-reinforced-polymer matrix materials. Shape memory wires due to shape memory/super-elastic properties exhibit a pseudo-elastic response with good damping/energy absorption capability. It is expected that the addition of shape memory wires in the glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer matrix composite [...] Read more.
Shape memory hybrid composites are hybrid structures with fiber-reinforced-polymer matrix materials. Shape memory wires due to shape memory/super-elastic properties exhibit a pseudo-elastic response with good damping/energy absorption capability. It is expected that the addition of shape memory wires in the glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer matrix composite (GFRP) will improve their mechanical and impact resistant properties. Stainless-steel wires are also expected to improve the impact resistance properties of GFRPs. In this research work, we investigated the effect of addition of shape memory wires and stainless-steel wires on the impact resistance properties of the GFRP and compared our results with conventional GFRPs. Super-elastic shape memory alloy wires and stainless-steel wires were fabricated as meshes and composites were fabricated by the hand-layup process followed by vacuum bagging and the compression molding setup. The shape-memory-alloy-wires-reinforced GFRP showed maximum impact strength followed by stainless-steel-wires-reinforced GFRPs and then conventional GFRPs. The effect of the energy absorption capability of super-elastic NiTi wires owing to their energy hysteresis was attributed to stress-induced martensitic transformation in the isothermal regime above the austenite transformation temperature. The smart shape memory wires and stainless-steel-wires-based hybrid composites were found to improve the impact strength by 13% and 4%, respectively, as compared to the unreinforced GFRPs. The shape-memory-reinforced hybrid composite also dominated in specific strength as compared to stainless-steel-wires-reinforced GFRPs and conventional GFRPs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities for Composites in the Future Energy Systems)
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12 pages, 1908 KiB  
Article
Effect of Clay’s Multilayer Composites Material on the Energy Efficiency of Buildings
by Sara Ibn-Elhaj, Soumia Mounir, Abdelhamid Khabbazi and Hind Sarghini
J. Compos. Sci. 2022, 6(5), 151; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs6050151 - 23 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2214
Abstract
Climate change and resource and energy depletion are already impacting ecosystems and societies around the world. As a result, environmental sustainability has become one of humanity’s priority challenges. This study aims to use ecological multilayer material in order to reduce the impact of [...] Read more.
Climate change and resource and energy depletion are already impacting ecosystems and societies around the world. As a result, environmental sustainability has become one of humanity’s priority challenges. This study aims to use ecological multilayer material in order to reduce the impact of carbon and energy needs of heating in severe climates in which people die each year from cold. The combination of the investigated multilayer material gives a low thermal transmittance (U = 0.361 W·m−2·K−1). A simulation using the software TRNSYS was established to estimate the yearly heating and cooling needs in the building with the developed multilayer material in a semi-arid climate. The yearly energy demands for heating and cooling were compared to a normal wall with conventional bricks; 47% of energy was saved by the use of the multilayer material wall. The use of the multilayer material permits a low ratio of energy needs of 24 KWh/m2/year for cooling needs and 43 KWh/m2/year for heating. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities for Composites in the Future Energy Systems)
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11 pages, 3143 KiB  
Article
Polymer Blends and Polymer Nanocomposites for Photovoltaic (PV) Cells and an Investigation of the Material Deposition Techniques in PV Cell Fabrication
by George Ntanovasilis, Ioannis Zaverdas, Tarig Ahmed, Foivos Markoulidis and Constantina Lekakou
J. Compos. Sci. 2021, 5(10), 263; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs5100263 - 9 Oct 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2139
Abstract
Polymer photovoltaics (PV) offer the advantage of low-cost, mass-produced, flexible PV films, but they generally suffer from a low-power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to silicon. This paper studies ITO/PEDOT:PSS/bulk heterojunction/Al PV cells, where two different bulk heterojunction blends are researched: P3HT/PC61BM [...] Read more.
Polymer photovoltaics (PV) offer the advantage of low-cost, mass-produced, flexible PV films, but they generally suffer from a low-power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to silicon. This paper studies ITO/PEDOT:PSS/bulk heterojunction/Al PV cells, where two different bulk heterojunction blends are researched: P3HT/PC61BM and PCDTBT/PC70BM. The addition of multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNT) is explored as a conductive network to accelerate the electron transport and extraction to the outer aluminium current collector while reducing the chance of charge recombinations. Several layer deposition techniques are investigated: spin coating and casting, as well as techniques that would induce transverse orientation of polymer grains, including inkjet printing, electrophoresis and the application of a transverse AC field during annealing. Transverse orientation techniques produced architectures that would facilitate charge transport without recombinations, but it is recommended to avoid such techniques for the deposition of conductive PEDOT:PSS and CNT layers as they create a high surface roughness that leads to short circuiting. The best performing PV cell is the ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PCDTBT/PC70BM/CNT/Al structure with a PCE of 11%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities for Composites in the Future Energy Systems)
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Review

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31 pages, 7711 KiB  
Review
Application of Composite Materials for Energy Generation Devices
by Tomasz Trzepieciński, Temesgen Batu, Fasikaw Kibrete and Hirpa G. Lemu
J. Compos. Sci. 2023, 7(2), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs7020055 - 3 Feb 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 7461
Abstract
Globally, electricity demand rises by 1.8% per year; according to the American Energy Information Administration, global energy demand will increase by 47% over the next 30 years, driven by demographic and economic growth. Global demand for electricity is growing faster than renewable energy [...] Read more.
Globally, electricity demand rises by 1.8% per year; according to the American Energy Information Administration, global energy demand will increase by 47% over the next 30 years, driven by demographic and economic growth. Global demand for electricity is growing faster than renewable energy sources. Electricity production from renewable sources (i.e., biomass energy, geothermal energy, hydro energy, solar energy, tidal energy, wind energy) is on its way to strong growth around the world over the next dozen years. With the increasing demand for energy, new technologies and materials are being developed to replace exhaustible traditional construction materials. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the research into the application of composite materials in mainstream power generation. The main energy generation technologies, i.e., photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, fuel cells, and biogas generators, were analysed and discussed. The review presented in this article also covers the latest achievements and prospects for the use of composite materials in energy generation devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities for Composites in the Future Energy Systems)
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25 pages, 1200 KiB  
Review
Advances on Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) Nanostructures and Natural Colorants: A Review
by José A. Castillo-Robles, Enrique Rocha-Rangel, José A. Ramírez-de-León, Frida C. Caballero-Rico and Eddie N. Armendáriz-Mireles
J. Compos. Sci. 2021, 5(11), 288; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs5110288 - 29 Oct 2021
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 6325
Abstract
Human beings are attempting to take advantage of renewable natural resources by using solar cells. These devices take the sun’s radiation and convert it into electrical energy. The issue with traditional silicon-based solar cells is their manufacturing costs and environmental problems. For this [...] Read more.
Human beings are attempting to take advantage of renewable natural resources by using solar cells. These devices take the sun’s radiation and convert it into electrical energy. The issue with traditional silicon-based solar cells is their manufacturing costs and environmental problems. For this reason, alternatives have been developed within the solar cell field. One of these alternatives is the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), also known as Grätzel solar cells. DSSCs are a type of solar cell that mimics photosynthesis. They have a photoanode, which is formed by a semiconductor film sensitized with a dye. Some of their advantages include low-cost manufacturing, eco-friendly materials use, and suitability for most environments. This review discusses four important aspects, with two related to the dye, which can be natural or synthetic. Herein, only natural dyes and their extraction methods were selected. On the other hand, this paper discusses the nanostructures used for DSSCs, the TiO2 nanostructure being the most reported; it recently reached an efficiency level of 10.3%. Finally, a review on the novelties in DSSCs technology is presented, where it is observed that the use of Catrin protein (cow brain) shows 1.45% of efficiency, which is significantly lower if compared to Ag nanoparticles doped with graphene that report 9.9% efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Opportunities for Composites in the Future Energy Systems)
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