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Topic Review
Solid-State Batteries
Batteries are essential in modern society as they can power a wide range of devices, from small household appliances to large-scale energy storage systems. Safety concerns with traditional lithium-ion batteries prompted the emergence of new battery technologies, among them solid-state batteries (SSBs), offering enhanced safety, energy density, and lifespan. Solid-state electrolytes used in SSBs include inorganic solid electrolytes, organic solid polymer electrolytes, and solid composite electrolytes. Inorganic options like lithium aluminum titanium phosphate excel in ionic conductivity and thermal stability but exhibit mechanical fragility. Organic alternatives such as polyethylene oxide and polyvinylidene fluoride offer flexibility but possess lower ionic conductivity. Solid composite electrolytes combine the advantages of inorganic and organic materials, enhancing mechanical strength and ionic conductivity. While significant advances have been made for composite electrolytes, challenges remain for synthesis intricacies and material stability. Nuanced selection of these electrolytes is crucial for advancing resilient and high-performance SSBs.
  • 860
  • 15 Jan 2024
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Approaches to the Development of Advanced Alloys Based on Refractory Metals
The most promising directions of the development of heat-resistant alloys (HRAs) based on refractory metals are analyzed. The microstructures characteristic of HRAs, which it is advisable to form in promising alloys, are considered. The stability factors of the microstructure with respect to the diffusion coarsening of the hardening phases are discussed. Two groups of alloys are considered as the most promising HRAs based on refractory metals. First, the principles for design of HRAs based on (Pt, Ir)-Sc with heterophase γ-γ’ microstructure, where γ-matrix is a (Pt, Ir) solid solution with a FCC lattice, and γ’ is a strengthening phase with the structure L12 by analogy with Ni-base superalloys, are developed. The resistance of γ-γ’ microstructure in Ni, Pt and Ir alloys against the process of diffusion-limited coarsening is analyzed. It is shown that the diffusion permeability of Pt is several times less than that of Ni, so one should expect that Pt-based HRAs will not be inferior to Ni-based HRAs in terms of structural stability. The second group includes HRAs based on many not noble refractory metals. It is shown that solid solutions of the system (Ti, Zr, Hf, Ta, Nb) with a BCC lattice can be considered as a matrix of advanced refractory HRAs. The results of experimental studies of alloys based on (Ti, Zr, Hf, Ta, Nb) additionally alloyed with elements contributing to the formation of strengthening intermetallic and silicide phases are discussed. The issues of segregation of alloying elements at the grain boundaries of refractory alloys and the effect of segregation on the cohesive strength of the boundaries are considered.
  • 853
  • 13 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Templated Twist Structure Liquid Crystals and Photonic Applications
Twist structure liquid crystals (TSLCs) have attracted increasing attention in photonic applications due to their distinct properties: Bragg reflection, scattering, and optical rotation. However, there exist some issues due to the defects of TSLCs: weak thermal stability, narrow bandwidth, and complicated fabrication. The templating technique which includes device structure, templating process, and photonic properties of templated TSLCs to improve the issues was introduced. Furthermore, a variety of photonic applications including lasing, optical filters and gratings based on TSLCs with polymer templates are presented. Additionally, other applications of TSLCs are briefly introduced. Finally, the remaining challenges and future perspectives of templated TSLCs are proposed.
  • 850
  • 29 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Enriching WPCs and NFPCs with Carbon Nanomaterials
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene, with their unique mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical, and wettability properties, are very effective fillers for many types of composites. Recently, a number of studies have shown that CNTs and graphene may be integrated into wood–plastic composites (WPCs) and natural-fibre-reinforced polymer composites (NFPCs) to improve the existing performance of the WPCs/NFPCs as well as enabling their use in completely new areas of engineering. 
  • 847
  • 02 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Fundamentals and Historical Development of LC-DACs
Laser-heated diamond anvil cell (LH-DAC) experimentation has emerged as a leading technique for materials processing at extreme pressures and temperatures. Laser characterisation plays a vital role in any LH-DAC experimentation, so a brief resesarch of the most common Laser Characterisation Diamond Anvil Cell (LC-DAC) methods is provided here. This includes an introduction to spectroscopic pressure and temperature measurements, followed by the most wide-spread laser spectroscopy techniques.
  • 847
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Applications of Carbon Nanodots
Carbon dots have drawn immense attention and prompted intense investigation. The latest form of nanocarbon, the carbon nanodot, is attracting intensive research efforts, similar to its earlier analogues, namely, fullerene, carbon nanotube, and graphene. One outstanding feature that distinguishes carbon nanodots from other known forms of carbon materials is its water solubility owing to extensive surface functionalization (the presence of polar surface functional groups). These carbonaceous quantum dots, or carbon nanodots, have several advantages over traditional semiconductor-based quantum dots. They possess outstanding photoluminescence, fluorescence, biocompatibility, biosensing and bioimaging, photostability, feedstock sustainability, extensive surface functionalization and bio-conjugation, excellent colloidal stability, eco-friendly synthesis (from organic matter such as glucose, coffee, tea, and grass to biomass waste-derived sources), low toxicity, and cost-effectiveness.
  • 843
  • 30 May 2023
Topic Review
HMO-Glasses with Sb2O3 and TeO2
Among the different types of glasses, heavy metal oxide glasses (HMO) have received a lot of interest lately because of their low phonon characteristics. Glasses with more than 50% mol percent of a heavy metal cation are heavy metal oxide glasses. The glasses TeO2, Sb2O3, Bi2O3, and PbO are repetitive members of the HMO glass family. These glasses are excellent photonic matrices, due to their larger transparency interval that covers the visible to mid-infrared range, better non-linear optical characteristics, greater solubility of rare-earth ions, and lower phonon energies than conventional silicate, borate, and phosphate glasses. Apart from their excellent thermal, mechanical, and chemical durability, heavy metal oxide glasses have outstanding optical and electrical characteristics, including a high refractive index and dielectric constant.
  • 834
  • 06 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Microwave-Assisted Preparation for Graphene Functional Material
Graphite has excellent microwave absorption capability and electrical conductivity, microwave radiation on spent graphite can induce a Joule heat–discharge–plasma coupled effect, leading to a rapid heating process, especially when discharge occurs, exhibiting a thermal shock effect with the generation of a large number of high-energy electrons and active materials. This special feature facilitates microwave heating that is tailored for assisting the removal of impurities, structure repair, and graphite intercalation, exfoliation in an efficient manner and microwave-assisted preparation.
  • 833
  • 26 May 2023
Topic Review
MXenes for Nanogenerators
Due to its superior advantages in terms of electronegativity, metallic conductivity, mechanical flexibility, customizable surface chemistry, etc., 2D MXenes for nanogenerators have demonstrated significant progress. MXene-based composites have been shown to exhibit improved energy conversion efficiency compared to traditional energy harvesting materials. The voltage output of MXene-based nanogenerators depends on several factors, including the specific MXene material used, the configuration of the device, and the mechanical energy input.
  • 831
  • 05 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Functions of CNMs in Photocatalytic H2 Generation
To improve photocatalysis, scientists are turning to carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs) such as graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), fullerene (C60), carbon dots (CDs), and carbon nanofibers (CNFs), etc. Carbon-based nanomaterials show exceptional physicochemical properties, including thermal and chemical stability, high surface area, and better electrical, mechanical, and optical properties. Green energy must replace fossil fuels, and hydrogen is a prime choice. Photocatalytic water splitting (PWS) under solar irradiation could address energy and environmental problems.
  • 829
  • 07 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Structural Supercapacitors
Structural supercapacitors (SSCs) are multifunctional energy storage composites (MESCs) that combine the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced polymers and the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors to reduce the overall mass in lightweight applications with electrical energy consumption. These novel MESCs have huge potentials, and their properties have improved dramatically since their introduction in the early 2000’s. However, the current properties of SSCs are not sufficient for complete energy supply of electrically driven devices. 
  • 828
  • 12 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Silver Bionanocomposites as Active Food Packaging
Food waste is a pressing global challenge leading to over $1 trillion lost annually and contributing up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Extensive study has been directed toward the use of active biodegradable packaging materials to improve food quality, minimize plastic use, and encourage sustainable packaging technology development.
  • 822
  • 07 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Multiple Scale Fibrous systems Heating
Different types of heating systems have been developed lately, representing a growing interest in both the academic and industrial sectors. Based on the Joule effect, fibrous structures can produce heat once an electrical current is passed, whereby different approaches have been followed. For that purpose, materials with electrical and thermal conductivity have been explored, such as carbon-based nanomaterials, metallic nanostructures, intrinsically conducting polymers, fibers or hybrids.
  • 821
  • 28 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Nanocellulose/Nanodiamond Hybrids
Nanocellulose can be obtained from low-cost sources and has been extensively studied in the last decades due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility, low weight, large specific surface area, and good mechanical and optical properties. The nanocellulose properties palette can be greatly expanded by incorporating different metals, metal oxides or carbon nanomaterials, with the formation of multifunctional hybrids. Nanocellulose–nanocarbon hybrids are emerging nanomaterials that can respond to many current challenges in areas such as water purification, energy storage and conversion, or biomedicine for drug delivery, tissue engineering, antitumor and antimicrobial therapies, and many others. Nanocellulose/nanodiamonds hybrids combine the bio-based origin, biodegradability, good dispersion in water, and non-toxicity of nanocellulose with the high thermal conductivity, excellent mechanical resistance, and great structural stability of nanodiamonds.
  • 820
  • 25 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Cellulose Acetate and Silver Nanoparticles
Natural patterns and structures provide inspiration for scientists of diverse technological backgrounds to create artificial products (from different materials) with similar properties as naturally occurring products. One such pattern is the naturally occurring honeycomb-like pattern (HCP). The surfaces of products with this pattern consists of thousands of interconnected hexagonally formed cells that create an efficient structure with a large surface area. The HCP, due to its excellent properties, such as structural and mechanical strength, low density, and porosity, has found applications in several areas, including architecture, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and biomedicine. HCP-like structures have also been widely used as carriers in tissue engineering (TE).
  • 803
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Seed-Directed Synthesis of Al-Rich Zeolites
Zeolites have been widely employed in fields of petroleum refining, fine chemicals and environmental protection, but their syntheses are always performed in the presence of organic templates, which have many drawbacks such as high cost and polluted wastes. The seed-directed route opens a new door for synthesizing zeolites with Al-rich features, which are being simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly. In addition, it also has many advantages including accelerating the crystallization rate, increasing the degree of crystallinity and avoiding the generation of impurity phases and controlling the crystal size. The seed-directed synthesis of zeolites is divided into the homonuclear and heteronuclear growth.
  • 795
  • 31 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Active Layer with Structure Retention
Lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) are promising templates for active layer materials due to their inherently uniform and controllable pore size, ranging from 0.2 to 5 nm. Membranes formed by LLC template materials possess low surface roughness and high hydrophilicity, which result in higher membrane-fouling resistance. Moreover, mesophases such as hexagonal and lamellar are reorientable, enabling water channels to align perpendicularly to the membrane surface and increasing water permeance.
  • 779
  • 06 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Pillar[n]arene-Mimicking/Assisted/Participated Carbon Nanotube Materials
The molecular structure of pillar[n]arene could serve different roles in the fabrication of attractive carbon nanotube-based materials. Firstly, pillar[n]arene has the ability to provide the structural basis for enlarging the cylindrical pillar-like architecture by forming one-dimensional, rigid, tubular, oligomeric/polymeric structures with aromatic moieties as the linker or forming spatially “closed”, channel-like, flexible structures by perfunctionalizing with peptides and with intramolecular hydrogen bonding. Interestingly, such pillar[n]arene-based carbon nanotube-resembling structures were used as porous materials for the adsorption and separation of gas and toxic pollutants, as well as for artificial water channels and membranes. In addition to the art of organic synthesis, self-assembly based on pillar[n]arene, such as self-assembled amphiphilic molecules, is also used to promote and control the dispersion behavior of carbon nanotubes in solution. Furthermore, functionalized pillar[n]arene derivatives integrated carbon nanotubes to prepare advanced hybrid materials through supramolecular interactions, which could also incorporate various compositions such as Ag and Au nanoparticles for catalysis and sensing.
  • 778
  • 15 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Preparation of MXene/Elastomer Nanocomposites
Two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal carbon/nitrogen/carbon nitride (MXene) has extremely high conductivity and easily modifiable surface functional groups. Compared with graphene, another 2D layered material, MXene is easily dispersed in water owing to its hydrophilic groups. Its unique characteristics make MXene a valuable material. Nanocomposites can be endowed with functionality when MXene is compounded with an elastomer. Particularly in electromagnetic interference shielding and sensing, MXene exhibits extraordinary properties. 
  • 766
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Preparation of ZnO Nanocomposites for Improved Photocatalytic Activity
There are many methods of fabricating ZnO nanostructured materials, including solution-based and vapour-phase methods. However, some of the challenges with most solution-based preparation procedures are: (i) reproducibility due to the constraint of using metal salts of variable purity, (ii) the slow rate of crystal growth, and (iii) the necessity of shaping agents for well-regulated morphologies. Most synthetic strategies for Vis/solar light-responsive semiconductors aim for a reduction in the band gap energy and the effective separation of the photogenerated (e−/h+) charge carriers. These two properties rely on the particle dimension of the semiconductor, its crystal phase, and degree of crystallinity, hence, the need for shaping agents that produce increased specific surface areas for self-assembled nanoporous materials. Controlling synthesis conditions ensures the fabrication of semiconductors with the desired photocatalytic properties.
  • 762
  • 26 Dec 2022
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