The conversion of solar energy into chemical fuel is one of the ,ÄúHoly Grails,Äù of twenty-first century chemistry. Solar energy can be used to split water into oxygen and protons, which are then used to make hydrogen fuel. Nature is able to catalyze both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) required for the conversion of solar energy into chemical fuel through the employment of enzymes that are composed of inexpensive transition metals. Instead of using expensive catalysts such as platinum, cheaper alternatives (such as cobalt, iron, or nickel) would provide the opportunity to make solar energy competitive with fossil fuels. However, obtaining efficient catalysts based on earth-abundant materials is still a daunting task. In this chapter, we review the advancements made with zirconium phosphate (ZrP) as a support for earth-abundant transition metals for the OER. Our studies have found that ZrP is a suitable support for transition metals as it provides an accessible surface where the OER can occur. Further findings have also shown that exfoliation of ZrP increases the availability of sites where active species can be adsorbed and performance is improved with this strategy.

Aiming at the generation of hydrogen from water, electrochemical water splitting represents a promising clean technology for generating a renewable energy resource. The book reviews the fundamental aspects and describes recent research advances. Properties and characterization methods for various types of electrocatalysts are discussed, including noble metals, earth-abundant metals, metal-organic frameworks, carbon nanomaterials and polymers. Keywords: Electrochemical Water Splitting, Renewable Energy Resource, Electrocatalysts, Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER), Noble Metal Catalysts, Earth-Abundant Metal Catalysts, MOF Catalysts, Carbon-based Nanocatalysts, Polymer Catalysts, Transition Metal-based Electrocatalysts, Fe-based Electrocatalysts, Co-based Electrocatalysts, Ni-based Electrocatalysts, Metal Free Catalysts, Transition-Metal Chalcogenides, Prussian Blue Analogues.

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Nanomaterials have recently garnered significant attention and practical importance for heterogeneous electrocatalysis. This book presents recent developments in the design, synthesis, and characterisation of nanostructured electrocatalytic materials, with a focus on applications to energy and wastewater treatment. Electrocatalytic nanomaterials can enhance process efficiency and sustainability, thus providing innovative solutions for a wide array of areas such as sustainable energy production, conversion, and wastewater treatment. Readers will gain insights into the latest breakthroughs in electrocatalysis and the activity of nanomaterials in energy conversion applications, e.g., fuel cells, hydrogen production, water splitting, and electro/photocatalytic water splitting, as well as for wastewater treatment. The book explores the development of advanced electrocatalysts, particularly hybrid materials.

The occurrence of available energy reservoirs is decreasing steeply, therefore we are looking for an alternative and sustainable renewable energy resources. Among them, hydrogen is considered as green fuel with a high density of energy. In nature, hydrogen is not found in a free state and it is most likely present in the compound form for example H2O. Water covers almost 75% of the earth planet. To produce hydrogen from water, it requires an efficient catalyst. For this purpose, noble materials such as Pt, Ir, and Ru are efficient materials for water splitting. These precious catalysts are rare in nature, very costly, and are restricted from largescale applications. Therefore, search for a new earth-abundant and nonprecious materials is a hot spot area in the research today. Among the materials, nanomaterials are excellent candidates because of their potential properties for extended applications, particularly in energy systems. The fabrication of nanostructured materials with high specific surface area, fast charge transport, rich catalytic sites, and huge ion transport is the key challenge for turning nonprecious materials into precious catalytic materials. In this thesis, we have investigated nonprecious nanostructured materials and they are found to be efficient for electrochemical water splitting. These nanostructured materials include MoS2-TiO2, MoS2, TiO2, MoSx@NiO, NiO, nickeliron layered double hydroxide (NiFeLDH)/Co3O4, NiFeLDH, Co3O4, Cu-doped MoS2, Co3O4- CuO, CuO, etc. The composition, morphology, crystalline structure, and phase purities are investigated by a wide range of analytical instruments such as XPS, SEM, HRTEM, and XRD. The production of hydrogen/oxygen from water is obtained either in the acidic or alkaline media. Based on the functional characterization we believe that these newly produced nanostructured materials can be capitalized for the development of water splitting, batteries, and other energy-related devices.

Water, which plays an important role in every aspect of our daily lives, is the most valuable natural resource we have on this planet. Drinking, bathing, cooking, regeneration, cleaning, production, energy, and many other uses of water originate from some of its versatile, useful, basic, and unique features. The access, purification, and reuse of water on our planet, which is of course not endless and not available for direct use, is directly related to the water chemistry that explores its inimitable properties. This book includes research on water chemistry-related applications in environmental management and sustainable environmental issues such as water and wastewater treatment, water quality management, and other similar topics. The book consists of three sections, namely, water treatment, wastewater treatment, and water splitting, respectively, and includes 11 chapters. In these chapters, water-wastewater remediation methods, nanomaterials in water treatment, and water splitting processes are comprehensively reviewed in terms of water chemistry.The editors would like to record their sincere thanks to the authors for their contributions.

This PhD thesis is a comprehensive investigation of selected 1:2:2 inorganic layered intermetallics as potentially useful magnetic and catalytic materials, to help develop green energy alternatives to the current devices and technologies that rely on fossil fuels. Understanding electronic and crystal structures of these materials and their relationship to magnetic and catalytic properties at the fundamental level can provide a useful basis to produce, respectively, effective magnets for magnetic refrigeration devices and alternative electrocatalysts to replace known expensive state-of-the-art catalysts used for water splitting electrolysis. This work has focused on investigating the potential of selected layer intermetallic borides and phosphides for these important clean-energy applications. Chapter 1 of this thesis is a brief introduction to the basics of magnetism, water splitting electrolysis, and ternary layered intermetallics of the 1:2:2 stoichiometry. Chapter 2 covers different synthetic methods and characterization techniques utilized in the development of 1:2:2 materials. In Chapter 3, we describe the study of magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of AlFe2B2, a material that consists of light earth-abundant elements and shows it's a remarkable magnetocaloric effect (MCE) near room temperature. This material was synthesized using a new technique, microwave melting, which, in turn, lead to the discovery of a new optimal Al:Fe:B stoichiometric ratio of 3:2.6:2 to minimize the formation of the Al13Fe4 byproduct that can be removed by acid treatment. Considering the syntheses of AlFe2B2 by arc-, induction-, and microwave-melting techniques, we compare the effect of each method on the resulting magnetic properties of the material. Although the differences among the samples obtained by different methodologies are relatively small, the arc-melted sample demonstrated the highest total MCE. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Siegrist group at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL), we used a custom diffraction setup integrated with the Florida Split Coil Magnet to investigate the structural changes occurring to AlFe2B2 as a function of temperature and magnetic field. With a Curie temperature of 280 K, the magnetostriction was measured at 250, 290, and 300 K under a varying applied field up to 25 T. The crystal lattice of AlFe2B2 exhibited anisotropic changes along different crystallographic directions, with a and b axes decreasing and c axis increasing with field. The volume magnetostriction showed anomalous changes near the ferromagnetic ordering temperature. These results were supported by density functional theory calculations performed on non-polarized and spin-polarized models of the AlFe2B2 structure. Investigating other properties of AlFe2B2, we have discovered the effectiveness of this 1:2:2 material as a water splitting electrocatalyst, as detailed in Chapter 4. The layered ternary boride shows excellent performance in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), providing a remarkably low overpotential of 240 mV at a current density of 10 mA/cm2 in an alkaline electrolyte (pH = 14). Given the inferior performance of the binary counterpart, FeB, we have attributed the remarkable electrocatalytic properties of AlFe2B2 to the extra conductivity provided by the Al layer in its layered structure. A comparison is drawn between state-of-the-art OER electrocatalysts and AlFe2B2 through the Chapter. Upon post-catalysis characterization, we see AlFe2B2 undergo structural reconstruction with Fe3O4 nanoparticles forming an outer shell around the AlFe2B2 particles. Thus, AlFe2B2 serves as both a pre-catalyst and support to provide the long-term stability and efficient electrocatalytic performance for water oxidation. Chapter 5 extends the studies of OER electrocatalysis to the rare-earth intermetallic phosphide, LaCo2P2. This material exhibits a ThCr2Si2-type structure that contains [Co2P2] layers alternating with La layers. The OER electrocatalytic properties were tested and confirmed under alkaline conditions (pH = 14). The material demonstrated an overpotential of 420 mV at the current density of 10 mA/cm2. Under acidic conditions (pH = 0), the material was shown to rapidly decompose to LaPO4. To understand the fundamentals of the reaction, the LaCo2P2 particles were analyzed before and after electrochemical testing by powder X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. Finally, similarly to AlFe2B2 discussed in Chapter 4, an in-depth investigation of the particle surface will be discussed and analyzed due to the formation of an oxide layer forming on the surface, which in turn may affect the overall catalytic process and particle structure.

Nanostructured materials, especially, 1D, 2D and 3D nanostructures, and their engineered architectures are being increasingly used due to their potential to achieve sustainable development in energy and environmental sectors, providing a solution to a range of global challenges. A huge amount of research has been devoted in the recent past on the fine-tuning of nano-architecutres to accomplish innovations in energy storage and conversions, i.e., batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells, solar cells, and electrochromic devices, bifunctional catalysts for ORR and OER, gas to fuels, liquid to fuels, and photocatalysts, corrosion, electrochemical sensors, and pollution and contaminants removal. Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Remediation describes the fundamental aspects of a diverse range of nanomaterials for the sustainable development in energy and environmental remediation in a comprehensive manner. Experimental studies of varies nanomaterials will be discussed along with their design and applications, with specific attention to various chemical reactions involving and their challenges for catalysis, energy storage and conversion systems, and removal of pollutants are addressed. This book will also emphasise the challenges with past developments and direction for further research, details pertaining to the current ground - breaking technology and future perspective with multidisciplinary approach on energy, nanobiotechnology and environmental science - Summarizes the latest advances in how nanotechnology is being used in energy and environmental science - Outlines the major challenges to using nanomaterials for creating new products and devices in the sustainable energy and environmental sectors - Helps materials scientists and engineers make selection and design decisions regarding which nanomaterial to use when creating new produts and evices for energy and environmental applications

Multifunctional Inorganic Nanomaterials for Energy Applications provides deep insight into the role of multifunctional nanomaterials in the field of energy and power generation applications. It mainly focuses on the synthesis, fabrication, design, development, and optimization of novel functional inorganic nanomaterials for energy storage and saving devices. It also covers studies of inorganic electrode materials for supercapacitors, membranes for batteries and fuel cells, and materials for display systems and energy generation. Features: Explores computational and experimental methods of preparing inorganic nanomaterials and their multifunctional applications Includes synthesis and performance analysis of various functional nanomaterials for energy storage and saving applications Reviews current research directions and latest developments in the field of energy materials Discusses importance of computational techniques in designing novel nanomaterials Highlights importance of multifunctional applications of nanomaterials in the energy sector This book is aimed at graduate students and researchers in materials science, electrical engineering, and nanomaterials.

Inorganic Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials provides an overview of the development on inorganic two-dimensional nanomaterials from computational simulation and theoretical understanding to applications in energy conversion and storage.