Materials for Renewable Fuels Production
Achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions globally by 2050, as urged by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for limiting the global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, necessitates development of sustainable approaches such as fuel production using renewable energy. A wide range of renewable fuel production technologies including those mimicking natural photosynthesis have emerged over the past 5 decades. Nevertheless, challenges posed by materials, particularly the catalysts, leading to problems such as low efficiency, high cost and inadequate reliability have come out to be detrimental to the commercial viability of the technologies. Recent innovations in the materials and fabrication processes have rejuvenated these technologies. Novel low dimensional materials and three-dimensional nano and micro-scale architectures of metals, alloys, carbon materials, ceramic and non-ceramic materials, and their combinations offering unique properties have given rise to electro-, photo-, and thermo-catalysts with unprecedented activities and long-term stability. During this exciting time for renewable fuel production technologies, APL launches this special topic as a platform for scientific minds to present new impactful developments in understanding the physics of such materials applied to fuel generation processes including water splitting and carbon dioxide reduction and their hybrids using different forms of renewable energy.
Topics covered include, but are not limited to:
- Electrochemical processes for converting solar, wind, or other forms of energy
- Solar photocatalytic processes involving novel materials and intriguing phenomena (e.g. surface plasmon resonance and hot carrier extraction)
- Photoelectrochemical processes using homo- or heterostructured photoelectrodes and tandem devices
- Concentrated solar thermal and thermochemical processes
- Hybrids involving a combination of renewable energy conversion processes
- Materials and strategies for enhancing the stability and durability of catalysts
- Direct or indirect biophotolysis involving biological species and solid materials
Guest Editors
Oomman K. Varghese, University of Houston
Joost Smits, Shell Technology Centre Amsterdam
Kazunari Domen, University of Tokyo and Shinshu University
Wojciech Lipinski, The Australian National University
APL Editor
Maria Antonietta Loi, University of Groningen