Volume 4, Issue 1 -

The expansion of sustainable technologies and infrastructures for the production and delivery of energy to the final consumer and the development of new technologies for energy production, storage and distribution, are challenging and inevitable tasks. Power plants based on the combustion of fossil fuel resources or nuclear power plants are not suitable to provide energy in the future due to significant disadvantages and dangers associated with these outdated technologies. The development of new sustainable technologies for the production of energy is desirable. Besides focusing on the production step, the change in global energy landscape requires also new and improved energy storage systems. Requirements for these storage solutions will strongly depend on the application. Storing energy by producing and consuming hydrogen is in this context a very attractive approach. It may be suitable for storage of energy for transportation and also for the bulk energy storage. Due to physical restrictions of high pressure hydrogen storage, alternative techniques are developed. This is, in turn, an ongoing task with multidisciplinary aspects, which combines chemistry, physics, material science and engineering. Herein, we review the production and consumption of energy, different energy storage applications, and we introduce the concept of hydrogen storage based on hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions of small molecules.

The synthetic approach of the anchoring of porphyrins to the surface of semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) has been realized to form very promising organic/inorganic nanocomposites. They have been of considerable scientific and a wide practical interest including such areas as material science, biomedical applications, and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Macrocyclic pyrrole-containing compounds, such as phthalocyanines and porphyrins, can bind to the NP surface by a variety of modes: as monodentate ligands oriented perpendicular to the NP surface, parallel to the NP surface, or, alternatively, in a perpendicular orientation bridging two adjacent NPs. Also, non-covalent (coordination) interactions may be realized between the NP via its metal centers and appropriate meso -attached groups of porphyrins. Recently, we showed computationally that the prominent structural feature of the core-modified MP(X) 4 porphyrins (X = P) is their significant distortion from planarity. Motivated by the phenomenon of numerous complexes formation between tetrapyrrols and NPs, we performed the density functional theory (DFT) studies of the complex formation between the core-modified ZnP(X) 4 species (X = P and S) without any substituents or linkers and semiconductor NPs, exemplified by small NP Zn 6 S 6 . The complexes formation was investigated using the following theoretical approaches: (i) B3LYP/6-31G* and (ii) CAM-B3LYP/6-31G*, both in the gas phase and with implicit effects from C 6 H 6 considered. The calculated binding energies of the complexes studied were found to be significant, varying from ca. 29 up to ca. 69 kcal/mol, depending on the complex and the approach employed.

The concept of a battery is not a modern invention, as first proofs go back to 200 bc . The development of electrochemical cells similar to those that we use today started at the end of the eighteenth century with the experiments of Luigi Galvani. The following paragraphs will give an overview of the progress in electrochemistry from the very early reports to the state of the art. Additionally, some future perspectives from the recent years will be highlighted.

Designing sustainable products requires a holistic consideration of issues at the Food-Energy-Water Nexus. One of the world’s greatest challenges is to insure clean water access for all inhabitants. Across the globe, communities often suffer from metal contamination in their water. We must develop low-cost, sustainable materials to treat this contamination, without putting undue stress on other systems. Biomass-based carbon adsorbents are often touted as one potential solution, but to be sustainable the biomass must be locally sourced, not grown on land that could be used to cultivate food, not require extensive water to grow, and not need undue amounts of energy to process. In this laboratory investigation, students were challenged to use a locally available, problematic biomass – phragmites , an invasive species in the Muddy River in Boston, Massachusetts – to develop a green adsorbent to remove metals from water. Specifically, students focused on the removal of manganese, as it is a local problem for several Massachusetts communities. Students activated the phragmites biomass using a room and low (40 °C) temperature KOH treatment, which opened the porous network of the reed to enable adsorption of Mn +2 upwards of 8 mg/g of biomass. In doing this experiment, students were exposed to the concept of adsorption, a separation process not often covered in the traditional chemistry curriculum. Students gained experience in performing adsorption isotherm experiments using atomic adsorption spectroscopy and UV–Vis spectrophotometry and learned to analyze data within adsorption isotherm models. Finally, students made connections between their laboratory data and adsorption theory, and how this data can be used to design greener materials to address environmental issues.

Crystallography is a powerful descriptor of the atomic structure of solid-state matter and can be applied to analyse the phenomena present in functional materials. Especially for ion diffusion – one of the main processes found in electrochemical energy storage materials – crystallography can describe and evaluate the elementary steps for the hopping of mobile species from one crystallographic site to another. By translating this knowledge into parameters and search for similar numbers in other materials, promising compounds for future energy storage materials can be identified. Large crystal structure databases like the ICSD, CSD, and PCD have accumulated millions of measured crystal structures and thus represent valuable sources for future data mining and big-data approaches. In this work we want to present, on the one hand, crystallographic approaches based on geometric and crystal-chemical descriptors that can be easily applied to very large databases. On the other hand, we want to show methodologies based on ab initio and electronic modelling which can simulate the structure features more realistically, incorporating also dynamic processes. Their theoretical background, applicability, and selected examples are presented.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have application potential in diverse areas ranging from wound healing to catalysis and sensing. The possibility for optimizing the physical, chemical and optical properties for an application by tailoring the shape and size of silver nanoparticles has motived much research on methods for synthesis of size- and shape-controlled AgNPs. The shape and size of AgNPs are reported to vary depending on choice of the Ag precursor salt, reducing agent, stabilizing agent and on the synthesis technique used. This chapter provides a detailed review on various synthesis approaches that may be used for synthesis of AgNPs of desired size and shape. Silver nanoparticles may be synthesized using diverse routes, including, physical, chemical, photochemical, biological and microwave -based techniques. Synthesis of AgNPs of diverse shapes, such as, nanospheres, nanorods, nanobars, nanoprisms, decahedral nanoparticles and triangular bipyramids is also discussed for chemical-, photochemical- and microwave-based synthesis routes. The choice of chemicals used for reduction and stabilization of nanoparticles is found to influence their shape and size significantly. A discussion on the mechanism of synthesis of AgNPs through nucleation and growth processes is discussed for AgNPs of varying shape and sizes so as to provide an insight on the various synthesis routes. Techniques, such as, electron microscopy, spectroscopy, and crystallography that can be used for characterizing the AgNPs formed in terms of their shape, sizes, crystal structure and chemical composition are also discussed in this chapter. Graphical Abstract :

The Next-Generation Science Standards represent a major shift from learning science content to preparing students to become scientifically literate through inquiry and investigation. This article summarizes the unique opportunities available to develop a biotechnology laboratory course on biofuels that heavily emphasizes scientific practices in a high-school agriscience department in Wisconsin. Through collaborations with universities, federal research facilities, and the surrounding community, students were able to engage in rigorous learning experiences in a sociocultural setting in a manner that maximized their preparation for college and sustainable careers. This example also highlights how effective science teacher professional development and collaboration can allow for improved instructional opportunities in science education while also enabling positive contributions to ongoing scientific research.

Species that contain bonds between hydrogen and selenium or tellurium have a characteristic high reactivity, which can be harnessed in the synthesis of valuable organic compounds. This overview includes the synthesis of dihydrides, alkali metal hydrochalcogenides, chalcogenols, chalcogenocarboxylic and chalcogenocarbamic acids, and their application in reactions of reduction, addition to unsaturated compounds, and nucleophilic substitution.

Carbohydrates, in the form of chitin, chitosan and cellulose, are one of the most available, renewable, and sustainable chemical feedstocks. Their conversion to biofuels, fine chemicals, and industrially-relevant monomers is becoming increasingly viable and promising as innovation decreases the price of this technology, and climate change and the price of fossil fuels increases the social and economic costs of using traditional feedstocks. In recent years, carbohydrates have been increasingly used as sources for nitrogen-containing fine chemicals. This chapter, with 86 references, provides a brief overview of the conversion of carbohydrate biomass to the standard hydrocarbon and oxygen-containing derivatives, and then provides a survey of recent progress in converting the biopolymers, and the derived mono and di-saccharides, into nitrogen-containing molecules with a special focus on N-heterocycle synthesis for medicinal applications.

Chalcogenated derivatives of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands have received increasing attention due to their diverse chemical reactivity and potential applications in fields such as medicine and materials chemistry. This chapter summarizes the synthetic methods for the preparation of cyclic heavy chalcogenoureas featuring heterocyclic cores and explores their diverse coordination chemistry with p- and d-block metals.

The application of shape-controlled metal nanoparticles is profoundly impacting the field of electrocatalysis. On the one hand, their use has remarkably enhanced the electrocatalytic activity of many different reactions of interest. On the other hand, their usage is deeply contributing to a correct understanding of the correlations between shape/surface structure and electrochemical reactivity at the nanoscale. However, from the point of view of an electrochemist, there are a number of questions that must be fully satisfied before the evaluation of the shaped metal nanoparticles as electrocatalysts including (i) surface cleaning, (ii) surface structure characterization, and (iii) correlations between particle shape and surface structure. In this chapter, we will cover all these aspects. Initially, we will collect and discuss about the different practical protocols and procedures for obtaining clean shaped metal nanoparticles. This is an indispensable requirement for the establishment of correct correlations between shape/surface structure and electrochemical reactivity. Next, we will also report how some easy-to-do electrochemical experiments including their subsequent analyses can enormously contribute to a detailed characterization of the surface structure of the shaped metal nanoparticles. At this point, we will remark that the key point determining the resulting electrocatalytic activity is the surface structure of the nanoparticles (obviously, the atomic composition is also extremely relevant) but not the particle shape. Finally, we will summarize some of the most significant advances/results on the use of these shaped metal nanoparticles in electrocatalysis covering a wide range of electrocatalytic reactions including fuel cell-related reactions (electrooxidation of formic acid, methanol and ethanol and oxygen reduction) and also CO 2 electroreduction. Graphical Abstract :