Decision-Making Methods and Sustainable Development: Metal Oxides for Energy Production, Environmental Remediation and Resource Efficiency

A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 2787

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
ENEA-Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Rome, Italy
Interests: thin films; nanomaterials; graphene; PVD; sputtering; optics; photonics; solar cells
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Metal oxide materials, both in bulk and nanostructured forms, exhibit a variety of functional properties and play a crucial role in many applications, such as energy production, catalysis, sensing, environmental remediation, corrosion protection, among others.

This Special Issue is devoted to the modeling and synthesis of advanced metal oxides, composites and nanostructures obtained by sustainable processes.

The Special Issue will also consider advanced analytical methods of processing information, such as machine learning, neural networks, fuzzy logic, factor analysis, etc.

The overarching aim of this Special Issue is to present research studies which discuss the recent advances in the field of metal oxides and metal oxide nanostructures of interest to the global industry and with reduced environmental impacts.

Dr. Alexey Mikhaylov
Dr. Maria Luisa Grilli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Metals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.

Keywords

  • metal oxides
  • alloys
  • precious metals
  • metalloids
  • semi-metals
  • synthetic metals
  • applications of metals and metal oxides
  • trade of metals
  • linear programming
  • DEMATEL
  • interval type-2 fuzzy TOPSIS
  • nanotechnologies
  • material synthesis
  • industrial development
  • environmental impact
  • process management

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 3067 KiB  
Article
The Role of the Graphene Oxide (GO) and PEO Treated-Zinc Oxide (ZnO/PEO) Intermediate Electrode Buffer Layer in Vacuum-Free Quantum Dots Solar Cell
by Seung Beom Kang, Younjung Jo, Nguyen Hoang Lam, Jae Hak Jung, Chang-Duk Kim and Nguyen Tam Nguyen Truong
Metals 2022, 12(12), 2096; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/met12122096 - 06 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1224
Abstract
The vacuum-free quantum dots solar cell (VFQDSC) was fabricated without using any vacuum process. The spherical iron pyrite (FeS2) nanoparticles (SNPs) and ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized and characterized. In the device structure, FeS2 SNPs were used as an acceptor [...] Read more.
The vacuum-free quantum dots solar cell (VFQDSC) was fabricated without using any vacuum process. The spherical iron pyrite (FeS2) nanoparticles (SNPs) and ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized and characterized. In the device structure, FeS2 SNPs were used as an acceptor material (n-type), and the low band gap polymer of poly[4,8-bis(2-ethylhexyloxyl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]-dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-ethylhexyl-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-2-carboxylate-4,6-diyl] (PBT7) was used as a donor material (p-type). In this study, we first applied the graphene oxide (GO) as the hole transport buffer layer (HTBL) and zinc oxide (ZnO) as an electron transport buffer layer (ETBL), which were considered to improve the charge transportation efficiency of the device’s system. The device with the structure of the Glass/ITO/HTBL/FeS2 SNPs, PBT7/ ETBL/E-GaIn were fabricated with a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.6%. Full article
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10 pages, 4051 KiB  
Article
Effect of Ta Doping on the Microstructure and Thermoelectric Properties of Bi2O2Se
by Jia-Ling Jiang, Song-Tao Dong, Zhuang Fu, Miao-Cheng Yu, Lijun Zhao and Lei Wang
Metals 2022, 12(11), 1881; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/met12111881 - 03 Nov 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1054
Abstract
In this study, Bi2−xTaxO2Se (x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08) ceramics were prepared using a synthesis method combining high-energy ball milling and cold pressing. Furthermore, the effects of tantalum (Ta) doping on the microstructure and [...] Read more.
In this study, Bi2−xTaxO2Se (x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08) ceramics were prepared using a synthesis method combining high-energy ball milling and cold pressing. Furthermore, the effects of tantalum (Ta) doping on the microstructure and thermoelectric properties of Bi2O2Se were systematically investigated. The results indicate that Ta doping effectively improves the carrier concentration and mobility, thus increasing the electrical conductivity from 8.75 S cm−1 to 39.03 S cm−1 at 323 K. Consequently, the power factor is improved, reaching a maximum value of 124 μW m−1 K−2 for the Bi1.92Ta0.08O2Se sample at 773 K. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of Bi1.96Ta0.04O2Se is reduced to 0.50 Wm−1 K−1. Finally, the maximum dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) value of the Bi1.94Ta0.06O2Se sample reached 0.18, which was 64% higher than that of Bi2O2Se (0.11). These results indicate that Ta doping and high-energy ball milling can optimize the electrical and thermal properties and thus improve the thermoelectric properties of ceramics. Full article
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