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Topic Review
Chitosan-based Flame-Retardant Systems
During the last decade, the utilization of chitin, and in particular its deacetylated form, i.e. chitosan, for flame retardant purposes, has represented quite a novel and interesting application, very far from the established uses of this bio-sourced material. In this entry, chitosan is a carbon source that can be successfully exploited, often in combination with intumescent products, in order to provide different polymer systems (namely, bulky materials, fabrics and foams) with high flame retardant (FR) features. Besides, this specific use of chitosan in flame retardance is well suited to a green and sustainable approach.
  • 2.0K
  • 22 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Self-Healing Mechanisms of Polyurea
Self-healing polymers are categorized as smart materials that are capable of surface protection and prevention of structural failure. Polyurethane/polyurea, as one of the representative coatings, has also attracted attention for industrial applications.
  • 1.9K
  • 20 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Clean Ethanol from CO2 Reduction
Using renewable energy to convert CO2 to a clean fuel ethanol can not only reduce carbon emission by the utilization of CO2 as feedstock, but also store renewable energy as the widely used chemical and high-energy-density fuel, being considered as a perfect strategy to address current environment and energy issues. Developing efficient electrocatalysts, photocatalysts, and photoelectrocatalysts for CO2 reduction is the most crucial keystone for achieving this goal. Considerable progresses in CO2-based ethanol production have been made over the past decades. This review provides the general principles and summarizes the latest advancements of electrocatalytic, photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic CO2 conversion to ethanol. Furthermore, the main challenges and proposed future prospects are illustrated for further development of the clean fuel ethanol production.
  • 1.9K
  • 24 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Carbonation and Its Mechanisms in Reinforced Concrete Structures
Reinforced concrete (RC) has been commonly used as a construction material for decades due to its high compressive strength and moderate tensile strength. However, these two properties of RC are frequently hampered by degradation. The main degradation processes in RC structures are carbonation and the corrosion of rebars. The scientific community is divided regarding the process by which carbonation causes structural damage. Some researchers suggest that carbonation weakens a structure and makes it prone to rebar corrosion, while others suggest that carbonation does not damage structures enough to cause rebar corrosion.
  • 1.9K
  • 11 May 2022
Topic Review
Perovskite Semiconductor Field–Effect Transistors
Perovskite materials are considered as the most alluring successor to the conventional semiconductor materials to fabricate solar cells, light emitting diodes and electronic displays. However, the use of the perovskite semiconductors as a channel material in field effect transistors (FET) are much lower than expected due to the poor performance of the devices. Despite low attention, the perovskite FETs are used in widespread applications on account of their unique opto-electrical properties. 
  • 1.9K
  • 27 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Thermochromic Hydrogel Smart Windows
Thermochromic smart windows technology can intelligently regulate indoor solar radiation by changing indoor light transmittance in response to thermal stimulation, thus reducing energy consumption of the building. In recent years, with the development of new energy-saving materials and the combination with practical technology, energy-saving smart windows technology has received more and more attention from scientific research.
  • 1.9K
  • 14 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Titanium Nitriding Methods: Drawbacks and Benefits
The application of titanium alloys in aircraft construction is expanding due to their high corrosion resistance and excellent strength-to-weight ratio. However, if not specially treated, they are characterized by relatively low wear resistance [1,2], a significant limiting factor for their application. The surface treatment may improve this characteristic, and diffusion-saturation by nitrogen is the gold standard, and this section discusses the features, benefits, and shortcomings of the most common titanium nitriding methods.
  • 1.8K
  • 20 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Surface Modification of Bacterial Cellulose
The surface of bacterial cellulose was successively modified by copper and zinc oxide nanoparticles using direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering and radio frequency (RF) reactive sputter coating techniques. The target materials, copper and zinc, were 99.99% pure and used in the presence of argon (Ar) gas, while zinc nanoparticles were sputtered in the presence of oxygen gas to make zinc oxide nanoparticles. The as-prepared bacterial cellulose/copper/zinc oxide nanocomposite has good ultraviolet resistance, anti-static and antibacterial characteristics. The surface morphology and chemical compositionof the nanocomposite were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopic (EDS) techniques. The prepared bacterial cellulose/copper/zinc oxide nanocomposite illustrates excellent ultraviolet resistance (T.UVA%; 0.16 ± 0.02, T.UVB%; 0.07 ± 0.01, ultraviolet protection factor (UPF); 1850.33 ± 2.12), antistatic behavior (S.H.P; 51.50 ± 4.10, I.E. V; 349.33 ± 6.02) and antibacterial behavior (Escherichia coli; 98.45%, Staphylococcus aureus; 98.11%). Our nanocomposite prepared by sputter coating method could be a promising and effective candidate for ultraviolet resistance, antistatic and antibacterial in term of functional, technical, medical and in many daily life applications.  
  • 1.8K
  • 01 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Polysaccharides Edible Films and Coatings
There has been a significant increase in the development of edible films and coatings in recent times, and this is expected to have a significant impact on the quality of fruit and vegetables in the coming years. Consumers expect fresh fruit and vegetables free from pesticide residues, with high quality, nutritional value and an extended shelf life. The application of coatings and edible films to fruits and vegetables represents an environmentally friendly approach to an innovative solution to this problem. Coatings and edible films can act as ecological and biodegradable packaging. The coating strategy involves a combination of natural biopolymers and appropriate preservation methods. Numerous studies show that natural polysaccharides are well suited for use as packaging material for fresh fruit and vegetables and can often be an important alternative to synthetic compounds. Natural polymer materials are a good barrier to oxygen and carbon dioxide; however, they are characterised by excessive solubility in the water environment, water vapour permeability and low extensibility.
  • 1.8K
  • 05 May 2021
Topic Review
Self-Sustainable Greenhouse Agriculture
It is now time for the future-generation and advanced greenhouse design practices to address a range of issues, from the energy and land use efficiency to providing plant-optimised growth techniques. In this Encyclopaedia record, we report on the practical development of spectrally selective and specialist-type  advanced metal-dielectric thin-film filters that produce the optimized illumination spectrum when exposed to natural sunlight that can help maximize the biomass productivity of coated-glass greenhouse crops. Our experimental case study has been performed for the lettuce species, Lactuca sativa, L., yielding promising results.
  • 1.7K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Enhancing Lithium-Manganese Oxide Electrochemical Behavior
Lithium manganese oxide is regarded as a capable cathode material for lithium-ion batteries, but it suffers from relative low conductivity, manganese dissolution in electrolyte and structural distortion from cubic to tetragonal during elevated temperature tests. 
  • 1.7K
  • 27 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Sol-Gel Technology
The commercial availability of inorganic/organic precursors for sol-gel formulations is very high and increases day by day. In textile applications, the precursor-synthesized sol-gels along with functional chemicals can be deposited onto textile fabrics in one step by rolling, padding, dip-coating, spraying or spin coating. By using this technology, it is possible to provide fabrics with functional/multi-functional characteristics including flame retardant, anti-mosquito, water- repellent, oil-repellent, anti-bacterial, anti-wrinkle, ultraviolet (UV) protection and self-cleaning properties. These surface properties are discussed, describing the history, basic chemistry, factors affecting the sol-gel synthesis, progress in sol-gel technology along with various parameters controlling sol-gel technology. Additionally, this review deals with the recent progress of sol-gel technology in textiles in addressing fabric finishing, water repellent textiles, oil/water separation, flame retardant, UV protection and self-cleaning, self-sterilizing, wrinkle resistance, heat storage, photochromic and thermochromic color changes and the improvement of the durability and wear resistance properties.
  • 1.7K
  • 05 May 2023
Topic Review
Protective Coatings for ATF Claddings
Since 2011, following the tragic Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear accident, great attention has been devoted to the development of a new concept of nuclear fuel to improve the safety of nuclear reactors during normal operation, transient modes and under accident conditions. A concept called “accident tolerant fuel (ATF)” indicates a strategy to prevent/limit the interaction of cladding material with water steam, or hydrogen embrittlement, and to reduce heat generation during cladding oxidation and increase “processing time” under accident conditions before re-flooding of the nuclear core.
  • 1.7K
  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Photo-/Electro-Driven Thermochromic Smart Windows
Thermochromic smart windows can automatically control solar radiation according to the ambient temperature. Compared with photochromic and electrochromic smart windows, they have a stronger applicability and lower energy consumption, and have a wide range of application prospects in the field of building energy efficiency. This entry describes that trends of photo-/electro-driven thermochromic smart windows.
  • 1.6K
  • 15 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Preparation Methods for Large-Area Perovskite Solar Cells
Solar energy is one of the most encouraging, abundant, green, and renewable sources for decreasing or even replacing traditional energy in the future. The energy provided by the sun in one hour is sufficient to supply the Earth’s needs for an entire year. The recent rapid development in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has led to significant research interest due to their notable photovoltaic performance, currently exceeding 25% power conversion efficiency for small-area PSCs. The materials used to fabricate PSCs dominate the current photovoltaic market, especially with the rapid increase in efficiency and performance.
  • 1.6K
  • 12 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Films and Coatings Deposition Methods
The modern methods of films and coatings deposition find many new application in industry and technology. The methods are mainly physical and categorized by the species participating in deposits build-up as: (i) atomistic; (ii) granular; and (iii) bulk. The examples of emerging methods developed by the author and belonging to each category are briefly discussed.
  • 1.6K
  • 31 Jan 2025
Topic Review
Bioactive Coatings
       In this entry, we compiled a variety of creative approaches to generate antimicrobial bioactive coatings. The benefits are very desirable: to create surfaces that either repel the attachment of viable microorganisms or kill microorganisms on contact without inducing inflammation or cytotoxicity to host tissues.        These coatings may consist of nanoparticles of pure elements (e.g. silver, copper, and zinc), sanitizing agents and disinfectants (e.g., quaternary ammonium ions and chlorhexidine), antibiotics (e.g., cefalotin, vancomycin, and gentamacin), or antimicrobial peptides (AMP).        Many bioactive coatings may involve unique delivery systems to direct their antimicrobial capacity against pathogens, but not commensals.  Coatings may also contain multiple antimicrobial substances to widen antimicrobial activity across multiple microbial species.
  • 1.6K
  • 26 Aug 2020
Topic Review
CdTe Solar Cells
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) has achieved a truly impressive development that can commercially compete with silicon, which is still the king of the market. Solar cells made on a laboratory scale have reached efficiencies close to 22%, while modules made with fully automated in-line machines show efficiencies above 18%. Based on the research developed in our laboratory, the fabrication processes of both CdTe polycrystalline thin-film solar cells and photovoltaic modules are critically discussed. The most common substrates, the constituent layers and their interaction, the interfaces and the different “tricks” commonly used for obtaining highly efficient devices will be analyzed.
  • 1.6K
  • 01 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Thin Polymer Films on Glass
Thin polymer films play critical roles in various glass industry applications. They have been used as adhesives in automotive and architecture, an anti-fouling coating layer in touch-screen applications, a substrate for organic light emitting diode, and a protective layer for glass packaging.
  • 1.5K
  • 27 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Silicon Nitride and Hydrogenated Silicon Nitride Thin Films
Silicon nitride (SiNx) and hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNx:H) thin films enjoy widespread scientific interest across multiple application fields. Exceptional combination of optical, mechanical, and thermal properties allows for their utilization in several industries, from solar and semiconductor to coated glass production. Historically different types of chemical vapour deposition (CVD), such as plasma enhanced (PE-CVD) or hot wire (HW-CVD) are the most common deposition methods, while physical vapour deposition (PVD), primarily sputtering is also widely used. Besides these fabrication methods, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is an emerging technique due to its ability to control the deposition at atomic level and provide extremely thin SiNx layers. Application of these three deposition methods is compared while special attention is paid to the effect of fabrication method on the properties of SiNx thin films, in particular the optical, mechanical, and thermal properties.
  • 1.5K
  • 23 Dec 2021
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