materials-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Recent Advances in the Sustainability of Energy- and Resource-Intensive Key Materials

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2023) | Viewed by 2679

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UPO4Sustainability - Dipartimento di Scienze ed Innovazione Tecnologica, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Viale T. Michel 11, 15121 Alessandria, Italy
Interests: green chemistry; sustainable waste-based materials; impact reduction in materials production and use; circular processes in materials chemistry

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Scienze ed Innovazione Tecnologica, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro, Alessandria, Italy
Interests: NMR spectroscopy; inorganic chemistry

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UPO4Sustainability - Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, viale T. Michel, 11-15121 Alessandria, Italy
Interests: LCA; sustainability; circular economy; industrial ecology
Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 15121 Alessandria, Italy
Interests: advanced materials; hybrid materials; ceramics; functional materials; solid-state NMR spectroscopy; pillared clays; zeolites; cement; porous materials; 2D materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, Materials & Environment, Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: waste recycling; urban mining; sustainable use of resources; applications of hyperspectral imaging and other sensing techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We cordially invite you to submit your research and/or review work to this Special Issue entitled “Recent Advances in the Sustainability of Energy- and Resource-Intensive Key Materials”.

In the near future, the global scenario regarding industrial production will need to manage several critical aspects to find a balance between the increase in demand for goods and the environmental impact of industrial production. Converging concerns are related to energy and resource demands, which are the basis of revisions to energy production policies, energy efficiency implementation, green chemistry processes and circular economy approaches. The challenge is even more difficult for several key materials (which the current infrastructure growth is grounded on) that are crucial for near-future developments and are currently impossible to substitute. For many of them, serious warnings regarding their use are related to the global feedstock distribution, availability, and use as well as energetic and environmental footprints. The needs to implement and improve processes for materials and elemental recovery, as well as recycling, are still lacking attention.

The scope of this issue is to give insights, from both academic and industrial points of view, on the state of the art for specifically critical materials, their current impacts and threats and their sustainable production processes, as well as to provide the most updated and promising advances on research results that can contribute to the reduction and mitigation of the main problems that a sustainable global future faces. The topics of interests include, but are not limited to, energy saving, circular economy, critical raw materials, feedstock, LCA, energy and resource intensity, environmental impacts, low-temperature clinkers, concrete demolition waste, supplementary cementitious materials, etc.

We are looking forward to receiving your excellent research works for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Enrico Boccaleri
Dr. Claudio Cassino
Dr. Giorgio Cantino
Dr. Geo Paul
Prof. Dr. Silvia Serranti
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

  • energy saving
  • circular economy
  • critical raw materials
  • feedstock
  • LCA
  • energy- and resource-intensity
  • environmental impact
  • cement
  • iron and steel
  • non ferrous metals
  • glass and ceramics
  • materials for electrical and electronic applications

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

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

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 6204 KiB  
Article
Fabrication and Characterization of Superhydrophobic Al-Based Surface Used for Finned-Tube Heat Exchangers
by Ran Li, Zanshe Wang, Meijuan Chen, Zhang Li, Xiaowei Luo, Weizhen Lu and Zhaolin Gu
Materials 2022, 15(9), 3060; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15093060 - 22 Apr 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2102
Abstract
Enhancing the heat transfer performance of heat exchangers is one of the main methods to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems. Wettability modified surfaces developed gradually may help. This study aims to improve the performance [...] Read more.
Enhancing the heat transfer performance of heat exchangers is one of the main methods to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems. Wettability modified surfaces developed gradually may help. This study aims to improve the performance of heat exchangers from the perspective of component materials. The facile and cost-effective fabrication method of superhydrophobic Al-based finned-tube heat exchangers with acid etching and stearic acid self-assembly was proposed and optimized in this study, so that the modified Al fins could achieve stronger wettability and durability. The effect of process parameters on the wettability of the Al fins was by response surface methodology (RSM) and variance analysis. Then, the modified fins were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), 3D topography profiler, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively. The durability of the superhydrophobic fins was investigated by air exposure, corrosion resistance, and mechanical robustness experiments. The RSM and variance analysis demonstrated that a water contact angle (WCA) of 166.9° can be obtained with the etching time in 2 mol/L HCl solution of 10.5 min, the self-assembly time in the stearic acid ethanol solution of 48 h, and drying under 73.0 °C. The surface morphology showed suitable micro-nano structures with a mean roughness (Ra) of 467.58 nm and a maximum peak-to-valley vertical distance (Rt) of 4.095 μm. The chemical component demonstrated the self-assembly of an alkyl chain. The WCAs declined slightly in durability experiments, which showed the feasibility of the superhydrophobic heat exchangers under actual conditions. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop