Preface: Nanomaterials for Energy, A Look Backwards - ACS

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Preface: Nanomaterials for Energy, A Look Backwards The American Chemical Society (ACS) is one of the major venues where experts and leaders discuss contemporary and current ideas in Science and Technology as was the case at the 246th ACS Meeting and Exposition that was held between September 8-12, 2013, Indianapolis, Indiana. The focus of the National Conference was on Chemistry in Motion, Industry and Nanoscience. The current ACS Symposium Series monograph was born out of the meeting based on oral arguments presented at the symposium on Nanostructured Materials for Next-Generation Energy Storage and Conversion. The gestation period of 1125 days, longer than the 660 days it takes to create a baby Elephant. Fifty technical talks from leaders around the world based at teaching or research-intensive universities, industry and federal laboratories in Colloid and Surface Chemistry areas presented their findings and here after thoughtful reflection, modification and renewal expand upon their original treatise presented at the conference. The symposium is a crucible for ideas related to applications related to energy production, modelling and storage and their potential impact in society. Yet, energy generation, storage and application is timeless in that every generation has faced similar challenges and adopted with contemporary solutions. This is seen even at a cursory glance at the literature in that in the last decade over 4000 articles in the technical periodicals related to fuel or solar cells with polymeric and ceramic materials encompassing the major sub category. Within new polymers, electrolytes are prominent, since fuel or solar cells improvements need advancement of anode/cathode electrode catalyst but also in membranes. The latter requires a through grounding in polymer and nanoscience to control structure and dimensionality and the book is organized along these ideas. The motivation is driven by societal needs and technical advancements in synthesis, design and characterization. Increases in raw material (oil, coal, natural gas) always lead to a reevaluation towards renewable and sustainable energy. The approach of the current generation is to investigate advanced responsive materials including polymers, ceramics and bi-functionalized materials for sustainable and green energy generation, transport, storage and usage. Raw material prices are a major influence, but another influence is portable energy usage, such as mobile devices, utilization of renewable energy in the form, of wind, water and solar and transportation in the form of electric vehicles (EVs), ix Liu and Bashir; Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


unattended aerial vehicles (UAVs) and pulsed power transportation require offline storage modalities from biosensors to load-leveling power stations including double-later electrochemical capacitors, dielectric capacitors and fuel cells. Fuel cells are a class of green energy devices based on proton-exchange membrane that are in continual development as can be observed from their published power densities. These improvements have focused on specific components, such as polyelectrolytes membranes, materials to limit cathode flooding, or increased retention at high temperatures, or materials that increase proton conductivity whilst keeping costs down. The use of hybrid materials may achieve both aims of retaining water whilst keeping high conductivity and high operational lifespans, such as amphiphilic incorporation into proton exchange membranes through incorporation of solid acids. The end goal is to achieve high thermal stability, tolerance to reactant migration/cross-over and water absorption. The last goal may also be achieved through incorporation of metal/metal oxide nanomaterials into the membrane or electrode, such as Pt or carbon nanotubes or coupling of metal organic framework architecture into hydrogen storage as a feedstock for fuel cells. Fuel cells require methanol, or gasoline, a limitation not shared by photovoltaics that utilize direct sunlight and convert that into electrical energy, analogous to plants that utilize sunlight for generation of chemical energy via photosynthesis. Although solar energy is not a major contributor to the US energy economy, the cost per kilowatt has dropped over the last five years due to use of organic polymers utilizing bi continuous hybrid cell design with (p-type) organic polymers and (n-type) inorganic materials as semiconductors taking design concepts from organic based semiconductors and light emitting diodes. Newer designs exhibit high mobility and conversion efficiency through incorporation of single cells design, matching optical properties of the harvesting surface to natural light spectra and the open-circuit voltage. These are some ideas touched-upon or elaborated upon by our select authors and from this Stephen Creager presents his views on the future of renewable energy storage devices. This book’s focus has been described in broad terms in the proceeding chapters. Specifically we have ten authors who have selected one area of developed, related to energy and storage. In the area of smart nanomaterials (Yilmaz et al.; Chapter 1) and Anodic Oxide nanomaterials and their applications in energy generation (Thornton and DeWitt; Chapter 2), Energy Generation (Mott and Maenosono; Chapter 3), cover the first third thematically. In the middle sections related to Catalysis (Mao and Ahmed; Chapter 4), Electrolytes (Marechal et al.; Chapter 5), Next Generation of Nafion-type membranes (Leddy; Chapter 6), are elaborated and in the latter third, topics related to Electrochemical based Energy Storage (Smimova and Kolla; Chapter 7), Metal-organic framework based storage (Zhou et al.; Chapter 8), Organic Solar Cells (Yamamoto et al.; Chapter 9), a standalone biosafety chapter (Liu et al.*; Chapter 10) and a post-face looking forward (Creager; Chapter 11). [*] Three years ago, when we held this symposium, the biological implication of components utilized in these devices was not a reality, due to the limited presence. However, with the push for EV, greater efficiencies in DSSCs and PEM-FCs, I [Dr. Bashir] asked Louise Liu to add a penultimate chapter discussing x Liu and Bashir; Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


the biological implications of accidental release of metal-organic framework based catalysts, which may be used in fuel cells and gas storage devices. Her analyses indicate a complex picture that these materials may be toxic (inhibitory to cell proliferation) or non-toxic (stimulatory) depending on their mode of interactions. Materials that exhibit oxidative stress tend to be toxic to human cells as well as microorganism. The former scenario is a disadvantage, whereas the latter scenario is an advantage, since accidental release into the water table of such metal-organic framework agents would behave as disinfectants (an distinct advantage), however if ingested, they would promote oxidative stress and apoptosis in human cells (a distinct disadvantage). More policy work is required in this important area; furthermore the nitric oxide (NO) and optical density (OD) assays may be a methodical approach to assess metal-organic framework toxicity in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells respectively. All ten authors are leading exponents in their respective fields and have been directly or indirectly involved with the symposium or monograph through a rigorous peer review process. The success of the symposium and the publication of the proceedings could not have been possible without the effort and support of the ACS Ramanathan Nagarajan, Program Chair, Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry (COLL) whom I share a great respect and admiration for. In addition, we would be remiss not to thank the support of the session moderators and presiders (listed alphabetically Drs. Christopher Brooks, Lea-Der Chen, Anne Co, and Amit Verma) and other organizers of the program. We also acknowledge Mr. Tim Marney, Bob Hauserman, Ms. Kat Squibb, and Ms. Arlene Furman, for their tireless and timely involvement in editing and producing this book. In addition, special thanks are due to the faculty at the Department of Chemistry, Dean of our College of Arts& Sciences and the Provost for their encouragement and lastly but not least the speakers, authors, manuscript reviewers, and ACS program coordinators and officials for their contributions. Who is this volume intended is our driving force in its gestation and creation. This monograph presents an up-to-date and eminently readable collection of papers in energy conversion, storage, and modelling, which would be of great interest to practitioners, directors, fund and program managers, researchers, and engineers in the field of energy generation and storage. It would also be the invaluable asset to students, and novices coming into the field, as well as seasoned veterans because this monograph based on the ideas discussed in the symposium will highlight leading edge frontier research in polymeric and nanomaterials including electrolytes at American and International research units, to bring the technical and general community in the direction of polymers and advanced materials for energy generation, storage, and conversion in fuel cells and photovoltaics and indirectly in batteries. An abbreviation and author biograph sections terminate this thematic edition. Specific funding agencies are listed at the end of each chapter and we wish to thank them all for their support, particularly the American Chemical Society – Petroleum Research Fund, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, The U.S. Department of Education Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for xi Liu and Bashir; Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


Hispanic Americans Program, the U. S National Science Foundation and Texas A&M University-Kingsville University Research Award. The thematic focus, depth, breadth, technical omissions, errors are as always ours human failing and not attributed to the ACS or Authors for which we will always “ to strive, to seek, to find, [and to serve better] and not to yield” (in Ulysses, By Alfred, Lord Tennyson). We thank you the reader for your future contribution as “A bringer of new things. … For some three suns to store and … yearning in desire. To follow knowledge like a sinking star” (in Ulysses, By Alfred, Lord Tennyson) towards the next generation of invention and scholarly creativity. Sincerely, Jingbo Louise Liu (MS: Heilongjiang University, Ph.D.: USTB, and Advanced Training: The University of Calgary), JSPS Invitation Fellow, FaST Fellow, DEBI Fellow and LBNL ALS User affiliate. Sajid Bashir, (MA: SUNY Buffalo, Ph.D.: Warwick University, and Advanced Training: Cornell University), CChem, CSci, FRSChem.

Jingbo Louise Liu Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University-Kingsville 700 University Blvd., MSC 161 Kingsville, Texas, 78363-8202, United States [email protected] (e-mail)

Sajid Bashir Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University-Kingsville 700 University Blvd., MSC 161 Kingsville, Texas, 78363-8202, United States [email protected] (e-mail)

xii Liu and Bashir; Nanomaterials for Sustainable Energy ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.

Preface: Nanomaterials for Energy, A Look Backwards - ACS

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