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Functional Nanomaterials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2025 | Viewed by 972

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Province for Persistent Pollutants Prevention Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063, China
Interests: functional naomaterials; energy storage; water remediation; electrochemistry; adsorption; catalysis

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Guest Editor
School of Energy and Power Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China
Interests: energy storage materials and devices; nano materials; battery; supercapacitor
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Henan Engineering Center of New Energy Battery Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shangqiu Normal University, Shangqiu 476000, China
Interests: preparation of nanomaterials; new energy materials; secondary batteries

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on the application of functional nanomaterials for energy storage and environmental purification. The articles in this issue explore functional nanomaterials with special structures that can be leveraged to improve the efficiency and sustainability of energy storage and consumption, as well as to address pressing environmental challenges such as pollution and climate change. Topics include the development of new nanomaterials for sustainable energy storage technologies, such as secondary batteries and supercapacitors, as well as their potential applications in water purification, carbon capture, VOC elimination, and other environmental remediation efforts. The Special Issue highlights the in-depth understanding of the relationship between the structure of functional nanomaterials and their electrochemical energy storage properties, activities, adsorption and catalytic characteristics, evaluation of device configuration, etc. We invite leading groups in the field to contribute their original research articles and review articles to promote the progress in the discipline.

Prof. Dr. Dezhi Chen
Prof. Dr. Junfei Liang
Dr. Wei Wei
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • functional nanomaterials
  • resource recovery
  • secondary batteries
  • supercapacitors
  • water purification
  • carbon capture
  • VOC elimination

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 2518 KiB  
Article
First-Principles Study of 3R-MoS2 for High-Capacity and Stable Aluminum Ion Batteries Cathode Material
by Bin Wang, Tao Deng, Quan Zhou, Chaoyang Zhang, Xingbao Lu and Renqian Tao
Molecules 2024, 29(22), 5433; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29225433 - 18 Nov 2024
Viewed by 352
Abstract
Currently, exploring high-capacity, stable cathode materials remains a major challenge for rechargeable Aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs). As an intercalator for rechargeable AIBs, Al3+ produces three times the capacity of AlCl4 when the same number of anions is inserted. However, the cathode [...] Read more.
Currently, exploring high-capacity, stable cathode materials remains a major challenge for rechargeable Aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs). As an intercalator for rechargeable AIBs, Al3+ produces three times the capacity of AlCl4 when the same number of anions is inserted. However, the cathode material capable of producing Al3+ intercalation is not a graphite material with AlCl4 intercalation but a transition metal sulfide material with polar bonding. In this paper, the insertion mechanism of Al3+ in 3R-MoS2 is investigated using first-principles calculations. It is found that Al3+ tends to insert into different interlayer positions at the same time rather than occupying one layer before inserting into another, which is different from the insertion mechanism of AlCl4 in graphite. Ab initio, molecular dynamics calculations revealed that Al3+ was able to stabilize the insertion of 3R-MoS2. Diffusion barriers indicate that Al3+ preferentially migrates to nearby stabilization sites in diffusion pathway studies. According to the calculation, the theoretical maximum specific capacity of Al3+ intercalated 3R-MoS2 reached 502.30 mAg h−1, and the average voltage of the intercalation was in the range of 0.75–0.96 V. Therefore, 3R-MoS2 is a very promising cathode material for AIBs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Nanomaterials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability)
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17 pages, 4271 KiB  
Article
Efficient Removal of Cationic Dye by Biomimetic Amorphous Calcium Carbonate: Behavior and Mechanisms
by Renlu Liu, Weizhen Ji, Jie Min, Pengjun Wen, Yan Li, Jialu Hu, Li Yin and Genhe He
Molecules 2024, 29(22), 5426; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29225426 - 18 Nov 2024
Viewed by 511
Abstract
The search for efficient, environmentally friendly adsorbents is critical for purifying dye wastewater. In this study, we produced a first-of-its-kind effective biomimetic amorphous calcium carbonate (BACC) using bacterial processes and evaluated its capacity to adsorb a hazardous organic cationic dye—methylene blue (MB). BACC [...] Read more.
The search for efficient, environmentally friendly adsorbents is critical for purifying dye wastewater. In this study, we produced a first-of-its-kind effective biomimetic amorphous calcium carbonate (BACC) using bacterial processes and evaluated its capacity to adsorb a hazardous organic cationic dye—methylene blue (MB). BACC can adsorb a maximum of 494.86 mg/g of MB, and this excellent adsorption performance was maintained during different solution temperature (10–55 °C) and broad pH (3–12) conditions. The favorable adsorption characteristics of BACC can be attributable to its hydrophobic property, porosity, electronegativity, and perfect dispersity in aqueous solution. During adsorption, MB can form Cl-Ca, S-O, N-Ca, and H-bonds on the surface of BACC. Since BACC has excellent resistance to adsorption interference in different water bodies and in real dye wastewater, and can also be effectively recycled six times, our study is an important step forward in dye wastewater treatment applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Nanomaterials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability)
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