Recent Advances in Green Synthesis of Spinel-Type Composites

Dear Colleagues,

With severe climate changes and the increasing demand for energy security, it has become necessary to explore sources of clean and sustainable energy to gradually reduce the use of traditional fossil fuel resources. Spinel-type materials are very large, with their metal sites representing almost all the main group and transition metals. Depending on the manifold compositions and flexibility of these materials, they have   a wide range of applications in energy storage and conversion fields, such as electrochemical water splitting, metal–air batteries, CO₂ reduction, solid oxide fuel cells, sensors and supercapacitors.

Through various and numerous studies on these materials and their corresponding performance, it was found that single spinel-type materials usually deliver unsatisfactory performance. To maximize the use of spinel materials, the synthesis of spinel-type composites is regarded as an effective strategy for improved performance depending on the resulting distinct effects that go beyond the sum of the individual constituents. These effects, which include interfacial effects, lattice strain effects and electronic interactions, resulted in fundamental changes in the morphological, surface, catalytic, magnetic, electrical, biomedical and electrochemical properties of the spinel-type composites. Undoubtedly, these effects are clearly affected by the preparation methods, which in turn affects all the properties of the resulting composite.

Recently, green preparation methods have attracted attention because the traditional methods of preparing composites have become a burden on the environment, in addition to requiring complex steps that consume a lot of effort, time and energy. Reliance on nature and its products is more appropriate for obtaining nanocomposites because they are sustainable, recyclable, free from contamination and consume less energy. Considering the rapid development and broad application prospects of spinel-type composites, it would be desirable in this Special Issue to summarize and advance green preparation methods for these composites and raise future challenges in this regard.

It is my pleasure to invite you to submit an original manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Dr. Nasrallah Mohamed Deraz
Guest Editor

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• magnetism
• spinel-type composites
• surface, electrical and electrochemical properties
• spinel-based supercapacitors
• spinel-based sensors
• ferrite-, cobaltite- and manganite-based materials