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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Chuanbao Cao

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Guest Editor

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: low-dimensional functional materials and their applications; 2D materials synthesis; lithium ion battery; sodium ion battery; Mg ion battery; supercapacitor; catalysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

When the size and dimensions of various materials are reduced to the nanoscale regime, the materials will exhibit particular dimension-dependent electronic structures and physical and chemical characters. Low-dimensional materials, such as one-dimensional (1D) carbon nanotubes and two-dimensional (2D) graphene, have received great attention for their optical, thermal, electrical, biomedical, environmental and catalytic applications. Moreover, low-dimensional materials are also emerging as the functional building blocks for advanced devices, including energy storage and conversion systems and nanomechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems. Particularly, graphene-like 2D nanomaterials are constructed by unique planar crystals with atomic scale thickness, resulting in a high percentage of surface atoms, highly efficient active sites and specific facets exposed on the external surface, which can convert almost active materials into surfaces and allow ultrafast surface-dominant electrochemical and catalytic processes. Low-dimensional functional materials and devices are a typical interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary frontier subject. Research in this field has mainly been related to material synthesis, characterization and functionalization as well as device fabrication and measurement. The challenges and prospects of low-dimensional functional materials and devices are, at present, wide open and require scientific attention.

This Special Issue on “Low-Dimensional Functional Materials and Devices” welcomes original research work and reviews on experimental or theoretical/computational studies of all kinds of subjects related to this field. The development of novel low-dimensional functional materials and their applications in lithium ion batteries, sodium ion batteries, magnesium ion batteries, fuel cells, solar cells, supercapacitors and catalysis comprises a short—and definitely not exhaustive—list of possible subjects for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Chuanbao Cao
Guest Editor

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Keywords

0D, 1D and 2D materials synthesis
lithium ion battery
sodium ion battery
Mg ion battery
fuel cell
solar cell
supercapacitor
catalysis
biomedical applications

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

13 pages, 2693 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fabrication of Vertical-Standing Co-MOF Nanoarrays with 2D Parallelogram-like Morphology for Aqueous Asymmetric Electrochemical Capacitors

by Leyuan Li, Hongtian Mi, Yuhong Jin, Dayong Ren, Kailing Zhou, Qianqian Zhang, Jingbing Liu and Hao Wang

Molecules 2021, 26(17), 5394; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26175394 - 05 Sep 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2328

Abstract

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have been considered as one of the most promising electrode materials for electrochemical capacitors due to their large specific surface area and abundant pore structure. Herein, we report a Co-MOF electrode with a vertical-standing 2D parallelogram-like nanoarray structure on a Ni foam substrate via a one-step solvothermal method. The as-prepared Co-MOF on a Ni foam electrode delivered a high area-specific capacitance of 582.0 mC cm⁻² at a current density of 2 mA cm⁻² and a good performance rate of 350.0 mC cm⁻² at 50 mA cm⁻². Moreover, an asymmetric electrochemical capacitor (AEC) device (Co-MOF on Ni foam//AC) was assembled by using the as-prepared Co-MOF on a Ni foam as the cathode and a active carbon-coated Ni foam as the anode to achieve a maximum energy density of 0.082 mW cm⁻² at a power density of 0.8 mW cm⁻², which still maintained 0.065 mW cm⁻² at a high power density of 11.94 mW cm⁻². Meanwhile, our assembled device exhibited an excellent cycling stability with a capacitance retention of nearly 100% after 1000 cycles. Therefore, this work provides a simple method to prepare MOF-based material for the application of energy storage and conversion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low-Dimensional Functional Materials and Devices)

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Graphical abstract

Review

Jump to: Research

30 pages, 4047 KiB

Open AccessReview

Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction Using TiO₂-Based Photocatalysts and TiO₂ Z-Scheme Heterojunction Composites: A Review

by Zia Ur Rehman, Muhammad Bilal, Jianhua Hou, Faheem K. Butt, Junaid Ahmad, Saif Ali and Asif Hussain

Molecules 2022, 27(7), 2069; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules27072069 - 23 Mar 2022

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 6492

Abstract

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction is a most promising technique to capture CO₂ and reduce it to non-fossil fuel and other valuable compounds. Today, we are facing serious environmental issues due to the usage of excessive amounts of non-renewable energy resources. In this aspect, photocatalytic CO₂ reduction will provide us with energy-enriched compounds and help to keep our environment clean and healthy. For this purpose, various photocatalysts have been designed to obtain selective products and improve efficiency of the system. Semiconductor materials have received great attention and have showed good performances for CO₂ reduction. Titanium dioxide has been widely explored as a photocatalyst for CO₂ reduction among the semiconductors due to its suitable electronic/optical properties, availability at low cost, thermal stability, low toxicity, and high photoactivity. Inspired by natural photosynthesis, the artificial Z-scheme of photocatalyst is constructed to provide an easy method to enhance efficiency of CO₂ reduction. This review covers literature in this field, particularly the studies about the photocatalytic system, TiO₂ Z-scheme heterojunction composites, and use of transition metals for CO₂ photoreduction. Lastly, challenges and opportunities are described to open a new era in engineering and attain good performances with semiconductor materials for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low-Dimensional Functional Materials and Devices)

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