Research on Advanced Energy Materials for Meeting Global Energy Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

More and more households in the modern industry are becoming increasingly dependent on energy, with some requiring rising doses of electricity, heat, kinetic energy, etc. Such unconscious energy consumption may be detrimental for our planet. Our civilization still functions mostly on the basis of fossil fuels, but the transition towards more green sources of energy have already been initiated.

Reducing CO₂ emissions and introducing variable commercially feasible renewable sources of energy are more effective ways of energy storage, though reducing worldwide energy consumption to prevent energy poverty is the world’s biggest energy problem. Obviously, modern man is continuously coming up with potent ideas to “save the world”, but there is still a long way between the concept, its realization, and market implementation. That bumpy road requires novel materials that can withstand the requirements of GREEN ENERGY. This not only means optimizing existing solutions, but also proposing novel approaches at various advancement levels from computer simulations, from experimental studies to full-scale operations.

The Special Issue, Advanced Energy Materials of Green Energies, aims to present research data, reviewing material and case scenarios of planned or conducted implementation processes related to the usage of modern materials towards reducing the world's biggest energy problem.

Potential topics for publication in that issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• carbon-based materials for energy storage;
• hydrogen storage perspective;
• composites as energy materials;
• energy magazines;
• equipment and technologies towards the implementation of proctological energy production and consumption;
• ways of overcoming energetic exclusion;
• reduction in energy loss during transmission;
• materials used for batteries and capacitors;
• superconductivity phenomenon;
• renewable energy;
• performance analysis;
• technologies for reducing CO₂ emissions;
• chains of the sustainable production and consumption of energy;
• industrial scale-up of green energy approaches.

Dr. Krzysztof Jastrzębski
Prof. Dr. Piotr Kula
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Title: Spatial graphene structures with potential for hydrogen storage.
Authors: Krzysztof Jastrzebski; Marian Clapa; Lukasz Kaczmarek; Witold Kaczorowski; Anna Sobczyk-Guzenda; Hieronim Szymanowski; Piotr Zawadzki; Piotr Kula
Affiliation: Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, Stefanowskiego 1/15, 90-924, Lodz, Poland
Abstract: The spatial graphene is a 3D structure of a 2D material that preserves its main features. Its production can be originated from water solution of graphene oxide (GO). The main steps of such method covers: crosslinking of flakes of graphene via treatment with hydrazine followed by reduction of the pillared graphene oxide (pGO) in hydrogen overpressure at 700°C and further decoration with catalytic metal (palladium). Experimental research proved formation of Reduced Pillared Graphene Oxide (r:pGO) that is a porous material of surface area equal to 340 m2/g. Transition from pGO to r:pGO is related with a 10-fold increase in the pore volume, and further reduction of oxides remaining after action of hydrazine. Formed open porosities seems ideal for potential applications in energy industry (for hydrogen storage, in batteries or in electrochemical and catalytic processes). The hydrogen sorption potential of the spatial graphene-based material decorated with 6 wt.% of palladium reached 0.36 wt. % which means over 10 times more than for pure catalyst. The potential of that material in industrial use requires further refining of the elaborated procedure especially concerning parameters of substrate materials.

Title: Spatial Graphene Structures With Potential for Hydrogen Storage
Authors: Krzysztof Jastrzębski, Marian Cłapa, Bartłomiej Januszewicz, Łukasz Kaczmarek, Witold Kaczorowski, Marcin Makówka, Anna Sobczyk-Guzenda, Hieronim Szymanowski, Piotr Zawadzki, Piotr Kula
Affiliation: Department of Surface Engineering and Heat Treatment, Lodz University of Technology, 90-924 Lodz, Poland