Kun Wang , Lekai Xu , Jiao Wang , Shaojun Zhang , Yanlei Wang , Nailiang Yang , Jiang Du , Dan Wang
{"title":"Smart heat isolator with hollow multishelled structures","authors":"Kun Wang , Lekai Xu , Jiao Wang , Shaojun Zhang , Yanlei Wang , Nailiang Yang , Jiang Du , Dan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2022.01.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2022.01.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Safe, green and efficient industrial production has always been the pursuit of the chemical industry. Since thermal energy is the driving force for most of chemical reactions, an ideal reaction tank would have the capacity to automatically regulate heat conduction rate. In detail, this reaction tank should endow an ability that resists the heat loss when the reaction temperature is lower than the target, while accelerating the heat dissipation when the system is overheated. In this case, this smart reactor can not only minimize energy consumption but also reduce safety risks. Hollow structures are known to reduce heat conductivity. Particularly, the hollow structure with multishells can provide more interfaces and thus further inhibit heat transmission, which would be more favorable for heat isolation. Step forward, by coupling HoMSs with temperature-sensitive polymer, a smart heat isolation material has been fabricated in this work. It performs as a good heat isolator at a relatively lower temperature. A heat insulation effect of 6.5 °C can be achieved for the TSPU/3S–TiO<sub>2</sub> HoMSs with a thickness of 1 mm under the temperature field of 50 °C. The thermal conductivity of composite material would be raised under overheating conditions. Furthermore, this composite displays an unusual two-stage phase transformation during heating. Benefiting from the unique multishelled structure, energy is found to be gradually guided into the hollow structure and stored inside. This localized heat accumulation enables the composite to be a potential coating material for intelligent thermal-regulator and site-defined micro-reactor.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuzhu Chu , Lingxiao Ren , Zhenglin Hu , Chengde Huang , Jiayan Luo
{"title":"An in-depth understanding of improvement strategies and corresponding characterizations towards Zn anode in aqueous Zn-ions batteries","authors":"Yuzhu Chu , Lingxiao Ren , Zhenglin Hu , Chengde Huang , Jiayan Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2022.04.008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2022.04.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Combining the unique advantages of aqueous electrolytes and metallic Zn anode, rechargeable aqueous Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) are of great promise for large-scale energy storage applications due to their inherent high safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness. As the essential component of ZIBs, Zn metal anode suffers from severe dendrite formation and inevitable side reactions (e.g. corrosion and hydrogen evolution) in aqueous electrolytes, which leads to low Coulombic efficiency and inferior cycling stability, impeding their large-scale applications. To be compatible with satisfactory aqueous ZIBs, Zn anode has been modified from various perspectives and focus areas. Herein, based on their intrinsic characteristics, we review the related improvement strategies for Zn anode, including interphase, substrate, and bulk design, so as to achieve an in-depth understanding of Zn anode optimization. Furthermore, the timely summary of characterization methods for Zn anodes are also performed for the first time, from both thermodynamic and kinetics perspectives, which is particularly helpful for beginners to understand the complicated characterizations and employ suitable methods. Finally, certain noteworthy points are put forward for subsequent investigation of aqueous ZIBs. It is expected that this review will enlighten researchers to explore more efficient optimization strategies for Zn anode in aqueous electrolytes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yifei Wang , Wending Pan , Kee Wah Leong , Shijing Luo , Xiaolong Zhao , Dennis Y.C. Leung
{"title":"Solid-state Al-air battery with an ethanol gel electrolyte","authors":"Yifei Wang , Wending Pan , Kee Wah Leong , Shijing Luo , Xiaolong Zhao , Dennis Y.C. Leung","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2021.05.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2021.05.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Hydrogel electrolyte is especially suitable for solid-state Al-air batteries targeted for various portable applications, which may, however, lead to continuous Al corrosion during battery standby. To tackle this issue, an ethanol gel electrolyte is developed for Al-air battery for the first time in this work, by using KOH as solute and polyethylene oxide as gelling agent. The ethanol gel is found to effectively inhibit Al corrosion compared with the water gel counterpart, leading to stable Al storage. When assembled into an Al-air battery, the ethanol gel electrolyte achieves a much improved discharge lifetime and specific capacity, which are 5.3 and 4.1 times of the water gel electrolyte at 0.1 mA cm<sup>−2</sup>, respectively. By studying the gel properties, it is found that a lower ethanol purity can improve the battery power output, but at the price of decreased discharge efficiency. On the contrary, a higher polymer concentration will decrease the power output, but can bring extra benefit to the discharge efficiency. As for the gel thickness, a moderate value of 1 mm is preferred to balance the power output and energy efficiency. Finally, to cater the increasing market of flexible electronics, a flexible Al-air battery is developed by impregnating the ethanol gel into a paper substrate, which can function normally even under serious deformation or damage.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.gee.2021.05.011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wenfeng Zhao , Hu Li , Heng Zhang , Song Yang , Anders Riisager
{"title":"Ammonia borane-enabled hydrogen transfer processes: Insights into catalytic strategies and mechanisms","authors":"Wenfeng Zhao , Hu Li , Heng Zhang , Song Yang , Anders Riisager","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2022.03.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2022.03.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Transfer hydrogenation (TH) with <em>in situ</em> generated hydrogen donor is of great importance in reduction reactions, and an alternative strategy to traditional hydrogenation processes involving pressurized molecular hydrogen. Ammonia borane (NH<sub>3</sub>BH<sub>3</sub>, AB) is a promising material of hydrogen storage, and it has attracted much attention in reductive organic transformations owing to its high activity, good atom economy, non-toxicity, sustainability, and ease of transport and storage. This review focuses on summarizing the recent progress of AB-mediated TH reactions of diverse substrates including nitro compounds, nitriles, imines, alkenes, alkynes, carbonyl compounds (ketones and aldehydes), carbon dioxide, and <em>N</em>- and <em>O</em>-heterocycles. Syntheses protocols (metal-containing and metal-free), the effect of reaction parameters, product distribution, and variation of reactivity are surveyed, and the mechanism of each reaction involving the action mode of AB as well as structure<em>-</em>activity relationships is discussed in detail. Finally, perspectives are presented to highlight the challenges and opportunities for AB-enabled TH reactions of unsaturated compounds.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Process reconfiguration and intensification: An emerging opportunity enabling efficient carbon capture and low-cost blue hydrogen production","authors":"Dongke Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2023.03.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2023.03.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Low-carbon hydrogen can play a significant role in decarbonizing the world. Hydrogen is currently mainly produced from fossil sources, requiring additional CO<sub>2</sub> capture to decarbonize, which energy intense and costly. In a recent Green Energy & Environment paper, Cheng and Di et al. proposed a novel integration process referred to as SECLR<sub>HC</sub> to generate high-purity H<sub>2</sub> by in-situ separation of H<sub>2</sub> and CO without using any additional separation unit. Theoretically, the proposed process can essentially achieve the separation of C and H in gaseous fuel via a reconfigured reaction process, and thus attaining high-purity hydrogen of ∼99%, as well as good carbon and hydrogen utilization rates and economic feasibility. It displays an optimistic prospect that industrial decarbonization is not necessarily expensive, as long as a suitable CCS measure can be integrated into the industrial manufacturing process.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cui Ouyang , Jianwei Li , Yaqi Qu , Song Hong , Songbo He
{"title":"Oxidation of benzene to phenol with N2O over a hierarchical Fe/ZSM-5 catalyst","authors":"Cui Ouyang , Jianwei Li , Yaqi Qu , Song Hong , Songbo He","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2022.01.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2022.01.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Catalytic oxidation of benzene with N<sub>2</sub>O to phenol over the hierarchical and microporous Fe/ZSM-5-based catalysts in a continuous fixed-bed reactor was investigated. The spent catalyst was <em>in-situ</em> regenerated by an oxidative treatment using N<sub>2</sub>O and in total 10 reaction-regeneration cycles were performed. A 100% N<sub>2</sub>O conversion, 93.3% phenol selectivity, and high initial phenol formation rate of 16.49 ± 0.06 mmol<sub>phenol</sub> g<sub>catalyst</sub><sup>−1</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> at time on stream (TOS) of 5 min, and a good phenol productivity of 147.06 mmol<sub>phenol</sub> g<sub>catalyst</sub><sup>−1</sup> during catalyst life-time of 1800 min were obtained on a fresh hierarchical Fe/ZSM-5-Hi2.8 catalyst. With the reaction-regeneration cycle, N<sub>2</sub>O conversion is fully recovered within TOS of 3 h, moreover, the phenol productivity was decreased <em>ca.</em> 2.2 ± 0.8% after each cycle, leading to a total phenol productivity of <em>ca</em>. 0.44 ton<sub>phenol</sub> kg<sub>catalyst</sub><sup>−1</sup> estimated for 300 cycles. Catalyst characterizations imply that the coke is rapidly deposited on catalyst surface in the initial TOS of 3 h (0.28 mg<sub>c</sub> g<sub>catalyst</sub><sup>−1</sup> min<sup>−1</sup>) and gradually becomes graphitic during the TOS of 30 h with a slow formation rate of 0.06 mg<sub>c</sub> g<sub>catalyst</sub><sup>−1</sup> min<sup>−1</sup>. Among others (e.g., the decrease of textural property and acidity), the nearly complete coverage of the active Fe-O-Al sites by coke accounts for the main catalyst deactivation. Besides these reversible deactivation characteristics related to coking, the irreversible catalyst deactivation is also observed with the reaction-regeneration cycle. The latter is reflected by a further decreased amount of the active Fe-O-Al sites, which agglomerate on catalyst surface with the cycle, likely associated with the hard coke residue that is not completely removed by the regeneration.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chengwei Ma , Xinyu Zhang , Chengcai Liu , Yuanxing Zhang , Yuanshen Wang , Ling Liu , Zhikun Zhao , Borong Wu , Daobin Mu
{"title":"Nano silica aerogel-induced formation of an organic/alloy biphasic interfacial layer enables construction of stable high-energy lithium metal batteries","authors":"Chengwei Ma , Xinyu Zhang , Chengcai Liu , Yuanxing Zhang , Yuanshen Wang , Ling Liu , Zhikun Zhao , Borong Wu , Daobin Mu","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2021.12.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2021.12.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Lithium metal batteries represent promising candidates for high-energy-density batteries, however, many challenges must still be overcome, e.g., interface instability and dendrite growth. In this work, nano silica aerogel was employed to generate a hybrid film with high lithium ion conductivity (0.6 mS cm<sup>−1</sup> at room temperature) via an in situ crosslinking reaction. TOF-SIMS profile analysis has revealed conversion mechanism of hybrid film to Li–Si alloy/LiF biphasic interface layer, suggesting that the Li–Si alloy and LiF-rich interface layer promoted rapid Li<sup>+</sup> transport and shielded the Li anodes from corrosive reactions with electrolyte-derived products. When coupled with nickel-cobalt-manganese-based cathodes, the batteries achieve outstanding capacity retention over 1000 cycles at 1 C. Additionally the developed film coated on Li enabled high coulombic efficiency (99.5%) after long-term cycling when coupled with S cathodes. Overall, the results presented herein confirm an effective strategy for the development of high-energy batteries.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Breaking the temperature limit of hydrothermal carbonization of lignocellulosic biomass by decoupling temperature and pressure","authors":"Shijie Yu, Xiaoxiao Yang, Qinghai Li, Yanguo Zhang, Hui Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2023.01.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2023.01.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of lignocellulosic biomass is a promising technology for the production of carbon materials with negative carbon emissions. However, the high reaction temperature and energy consumption have limited the development of HTC technology. In conventional batch reactors, the temperature and pressure are typically coupled at saturated states. In this study, a decoupled temperature and pressure hydrothermal (DTPH) reaction system was developed to decrease the temperature of the HTC reaction of lignocellulosic biomass (rice straw and poplar leaves). The properties of hydrochars were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), etc. to propose the reaction mechanism. The results showed that the HTC reaction of lignocellulosic biomass could be realized at a low temperature of 200 °C in the DTPH process, breaking the temperature limit (230 °C) in the conventional process. The DTPH method could break the barrier of the crystalline structure of cellulose in the lignocellulosic biomass with high cellulose content, realizing the carbonization of cellulose and hemicellulose with the dehydration, unsaturated bond formation, and aromatization. The produced hydrochar had an appearance of carbon microspheres, with high calorific values, abundant oxygen-containing functional groups, a certain degree of graphitization, and good thermal stability. Cellulose acts not only as a barrier to protect itself and hemicellulose from decomposition, but also as a key precursor for the formation of carbon microspheres. This study shows a promising method for synthesizing carbon materials from lignocellulosic biomass with a carbon-negative effect.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yangshuo Li , Huiyong Wang , Bing Chang , Yingying Guo , Zhiyong Li , Shamraiz Hussain Talib , Zhansheng Lu , Jianji Wang
{"title":"Intercalation assisted liquid phase production of disulfide zirconium nanosheets for efficient electrocatalytic dinitrogen reduction to ammonia","authors":"Yangshuo Li , Huiyong Wang , Bing Chang , Yingying Guo , Zhiyong Li , Shamraiz Hussain Talib , Zhansheng Lu , Jianji Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2022.01.009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2022.01.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Disulfide zirconium (ZrS<sub>2</sub>) is a two-dimensional (2D) transition metal disulfide and has given rise to extensive attention because of its distinctive electronic structure and properties. However, mass production of high quality of ZrS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets to realize their practical application remains a challenge. Here, we have successfully exfoliated the bulk ZrS<sub>2</sub> powder with the thickness of micron into single and few-layer nanosheets through liquid-phase exfoliation in N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) assisted via aliphatic amines as intercalators. It is found that the exfoliation yield is as high as 27.3%, which is the record value for the exfoliation of ZrS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets from bulk ZrS<sub>2</sub> powder, and 77.1% of ZrS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets are 2–3 layers. The molecular geometric size and aliphatic amine basicity have important impact on the exfoliation. Furthermore, the ZrS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets have been used as catalyst in the electrocatalytic dinitrogen reduction with the NH<sub>3</sub> yield of 57.75 μg h<sup>−1</sup> mg<sub>cat.</sub><sup>−1</sup>, which is twice that by ZrS<sub>2</sub> nanofibers reported in literature and three times that by the bulk ZrS<sub>2</sub> powder. Therefore, the liquid phase exfoliation strategy reported here has great potential in mass production of ZrS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets for high activity electrocatalysis.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dan Gao , Zhiling Luo , Changhong Liu , Shoushan Fan
{"title":"A survey of hybrid energy devices based on supercapacitors","authors":"Dan Gao , Zhiling Luo , Changhong Liu , Shoushan Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.gee.2022.02.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gee.2022.02.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Developing multifunctional energy storage systems with high specific energy, high specific power and long cycling life has been the one of the most important research directions. Compared to batteries and traditional capacitors, supercapacitors possess more balanced performance with both high specific power and long cycle-life. Nevertheless, regular supercapacitors can only achieve energy storage without harvesting energy and the energy density is still not very high compared to batteries. Therefore, combining high specific energy and high specific power, long cycle-life and even fast self-charging into one cell has been a promising direction for future energy storage devices. The multifunctional hybrid supercapacitors like asymmetric supercapacitors, batteries/supercapacitors hybrid devices and self-charging hybrid supercapacitors have been widely studied recently. Carbon based electrodes are common materials used in all kinds of energy storage devices due to their fabulous electrical and mechanical properties. In this survey, the research progress of all kinds of hybrid supercapacitors using multiple effects and their working mechanisms are briefly reviewed. And their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. The hybrid supercapacitors have great application potential for portable electronics, wearable devices and implantable devices in the future.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":12744,"journal":{"name":"Green Energy & Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":13.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50175340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}