The increasing consumption of fossil fuels leads to energy crisis and environmental issues, which seriously affects human daily life. To date, great efforts have been made to explore sustainable, eco-friendly and renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuels. In the past few decades, various energy conversion and storage technologies, such as water splitting (Zhang F. et al., ; Hu et al., ; Wu et al., ), proton exchange membrane fuel cells (Edwards et al., ; Park et al., ), nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) (Wan et al., ; Zhang W. et al., ; Yang et al., ; Li et al., ), CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) (Ozdemir et al., ; Liu et al., ; Yang et al., ; Ma et al., ; Wang et al., ), and metal-air batteries (Cheng and Chen, ) have shown promising potential due to the high efficiency, energy security, and environmental protection. In these fields, more attention has been paid to preparing advanced materials with outstanding performance, and developing advanced technologies for prediction, characterization and detection (Centi, ).
Electrocatalytic NRR to NH3 has been regarded as an attractive alternative to the traditional Haber-Bosch process owing to its lower energy consumption under ambient conditions (Tang and Qiao, ; Yang et al., ). The development of advanced NRR catalysts with outstanding performance and low costs is highly desired. Recently, Wang et al. reported that the ringlike V2O3 nanostructures could effectively convert N2 to NH3 under ambient conditions. Scanning electron microscopy analysis shows that the ringlike structure is uniform with outer diameter of 350–500 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis confirms that such nanoring possesses a rough surface, displaying more active sites. The high-resolution TEM image of an individual nanoring indicates a contracted interplanar distance of 0.211 nm, corresponding to the (113) plane. This work presents a facile strategy to fabricate the advanced non-noble-metal catalysts for NRR. It is believed that more effective and stable electrocatalysts would be developed for boosting the NRR in the future.
Energy efficiency is another efficacious way to alleviate the energy crisis. In the field of energy-saving optoelectronics, electrochromic devices (ECDs) have shown great advantages. Among various fabrication materials for ECDs, coordination polymer (CP) shows a broad application prospect due to good cycle stability, high color rendering efficiency, and fast switching speed. Liu et al. present a comprehensive survey of the current achievements and progresses of CP in energy efficient ECDs from the aspect of influence of composition, coordination bonding and microstructure of pyridine-based CP on the performance of ECDs. This work is expected to provide the guideline for achieving a substantial enhancement in electrochromic and other optoelectronic fields.
Nevertheless, one of the paramount challenges to develop new high-efficiency energy transformation materials is the long span from experiment to practical application, due to the complexity of research objects and methods, insufficient personal accumulated experience, etc. (Luo et al.) Artificial intelligence (AI) has potential for solving the problems mentioned above. Luo et al. investigated and summarized research works on energy storage materials for capacitors and Li-ion batteries. They pointed out that machine learning (ML), as a subset of AI, algorithms can reduce test number of cycles and required experiments, which greatly reduces time consumption and accelerates every stage of development. In addition, they summarized the status and progress of AI in energy storage materials and present solutions to relevant deficiencies, such as the establishment of a database, extracting data from unstructured literature with automaticity and high efficiency and accuracy, etc. Apart from saving time, AI can predict the performance of materials, monitor reaction processes, and explore reaction mechanisms (Luo et al.; Yang et al.). Focusing on the superiority of AI in predicting experiments, Yang et al. reviewed the situation and application of AI in respects of optoelectronic materials, hydrogen peroxidation catalysts, water electrolysis catalysts and microbial fuel cells. It indicates that the relationship between prediction and actual experiments is mutually facilitating. In other words, the efficiency of actual material processing can be promoted with accurate prediction, and the database for AI is extended.
In conclusion, the development of advanced materials and technologies for energy conversion and storage are of vital importance. Until now, various promising materials with excellent performance have been prepared, such as carbon nanomaterials [nanofibers (Zhao et al., ; Lee et al., ), nanotubes (Ma et al., ; Sun et al., ; Tuo et al., ; Zhang et al., ), graphene (Chen et al., ), etc.], reticular structure [metal-organic framework (Nam et al., ), covalent organic framework (Lin et al., )], and tandem catalyst (Morales-Guio et al., ), etc. It is worth mentioning that traditional technologies in detection and characterization are gradually substituted with new and advanced solutions, such as computer science (AI, ML, etc.), and in-situ characterization (In-situ/operando synchrotron radiation, in-situ/operando morphology/spectrum, etc.). It is believed the emerging technologies for materials design and characterization in energy conversion and storage will be greatly developed in the future.
Statements
Author contributions
ZZ supervised the project. JL wrote the manuscript. ZZ, YC, and ZF revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22071172).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
References
1
CentiG. (2020). Smart catalytic materials for energy transition. SmartMat.1:e1005. 10.1002/smm2.1005
2
ChenCYanX.LiuS.WuY.WanQ.SunX.et al. (2020). Highly efficient electroreduction of CO2 to C2+ alcohols on heterogeneous dual active sites. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.59, 16459–16464. 10.1002/anie.202006847
3
ChengF.ChenJ. (2012). Metal-air batteries: from oxygen reduction electrochemistry to cathode catalysts. Chem. Soc. Rev. 41, 2172–2192. 10.1039/c1cs15228a
4
EdwardsP. P.KuznetsovV. L.DavidW. I. F.BrandonN. P. (2008). Hydrogen and fuel cells: towards a sustainable energy future. Energy Policy36, 4356–4362. 10.1016/j.enpol.2008.09.036
5
HuH.WangZ.CaoL.ZengL.ZhangC.LinW.et al. (2021). Metal-organic frameworks embedded in a liposome facilitate overall photocatalytic water splitting. Nat. Chem. 13, 358–366. 10.1038/s41557-020-00635-5
6
LeeJ. C.KimJ. Y.JooW. H.HongD.OhS. H.KimB.et al. (2020). Thermodynamically driven self-formation of copper-embedded nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber catalysts for a cascade electroreduction of carbon dioxide to ethylene. J. Mater. Chem. A.8, 11632–11641. 10.1039/D0TA03322G
7
LiY.LiJ.HuangJ.ChenJ.KongY.YangB.et al. (2021). Boosting electroreduction kinetics of nitrogen to ammonia via tuning electron distribution of single-atomic iron sites. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 60, 9078–9085. 10.1002/anie.202100526
8
LinS.DiercksC. S.ZhangY.KornienkoN.NicholsE. M.ZhaoY.et al. (2015). Covalent organic frameworks comprising cobalt porphyrins for catalytic CO2 reduction in water. Science349, 1208–1213. 10.1126/science.aac8343
9
LiuH.ZhuY.MaJ.ZhangZ.HuW. (2020). Recent advances in atomic-level engineering of nanostructured catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction. Adv. Func. Mater.30:1910534. 10.1002/adfm.201910534
10
MaC.HouP.WangXWangZ.LiW.KangP. (2019). Carbon nanotubes with rich pyridinic nitrogen for gas phase CO2 electroreduction. Appl. Catal. B-Environ.250, 347–354. 10.1016/j.apcatb.2019.03.041
11
MaD.HanS.CaoC.WeiW.LiX.ChenB.et al. (2021). Bifunctional single-molecular heterojunction enables completely selective CO2-to-CO conversion integrated with oxidative 3D nano-polymerization. Energy Environ. Sci. 14, 1544–1552. 10.1039/D0EE03731A
12
Morales-GuioC. G.CaveE. R.NitopiS. A.FeasterJ. T.WangL.KuhlK. P.et al. (2018). Improved CO2 reduction activity towards C2+ alcohols on a tandem gold on copper electrocatalys. Nat. Catal.1, 764–771. 10.1038/s41929-018-0139-9
13
NamD.BushuyenO. S.LiJ.LunaP. D.SeifitokaldaniA.DinhC. T.et al. (2018). Metal-organic frameworks mediate Cu coordination for selective CO2 electroreduction. J. Am. Chem. Soc.140, 11378–12386. 10.1021/jacs.8b06407
14
OzdemirJ.MoslehI.AbolhassaniM.GreenleeL. F.BeitleR. R.BeyzaviM. H. (2019). Covalent organic frameworks for the capture, fixation, or reduction of CO2. Front. Energy Res.7:77. 10.3389/fenrg.2019.00077
15
ParkS.ShaoY.LiuJWangY. (2012). Oxygen electrocatalysts for water electrolyzers and reversible fuel cells: status and perspective. Energy Environ. Sci.5, 9331–9344. 10.1039/c2ee22554a
16
SunX.ZhangQ.LQ.ZhangX.ShaoX.YiJ.et al. (2020). Utilization of carbon nanotube and graphene in electrochemical CO2 reduction. Biointerface Res. Appl. Chem.10, 5815–5827. 10.33263/BRIAC104.815827
17
TangC.QiaoS. (2019). How to explore ambient electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reliably and insightfully. Chem. Soc. Rev.48, 3166–3180. 10.1039/C9CS00280D
18
TuoJ.LinY.ZhuY.JiangH.LiY.ChengL.et al. (2020). Local structure tuning in Fe-N-C catalysts through support effect for boosting CO2 electroreduction. Appl. Catal. B-Environ.272:118960. 10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.118960
19
WanY.XuJ.LvR. (2019). Heterogeneous electrocatalysts design for nitrogen reduction reaction under ambient conditions. Mater. Today27, 69–90. 10.1016/j.mattod.2019.03.002
20
WangN.MiaoR.LeeG.VomieroA.SintonD.IpA. H.et al. (2021). Suppressing the liquid product crossover in electrochemical CO2 reduction. SmartMat.2, 12–16. 10.1002/smm2.1028
21
WuD.KusadaK.YoshiokaS.YamamotoT.ToriyamaT.MatsumuraS.et al. (2021). Efficient overall water splitting in acid with anisotropic metal nanosheets. Nat. Commun.12:1145. 10.1038/s41467-021-20956-4
22
YangC.LiS.ZhangZ.WangH.LiuH.JiaoF.et al. (2020a). Organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction. Small16:2001847. 10.1002/smll.202001847
23
YangC.ZhuY.LiuJ.QinY.WangH.LiuH.et al. (2020b). Defect engineering for electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction to ammonia. Nano Energy77:105126. 10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.105126
24
ZhangF.HuY.SunR.FuH.PengK. (2019). Gold-sensitized silicon/ZnO core/shell nanowire array for solar water splitting. Front. Chem.7:206. 10.3389/fchem.2019.00206
25
ZhangT.HanX.YangH.HanA.HuE.LiY.et al. (2020). Atomically dispersed Nickel(I) on an alloy-encapsulated nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube array for high-performance electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.59, 12055–12061. 10.1002/anie.202002984
26
ZhangW.LowJ.LongR.XiongY. (2019). Metal-free electrocatalysts for nitrogen reduction reaction. EnergyChem2:100040. 10.1016/j.enchem.2020.100040
27
ZhaoY.LiangJ.WangC.MaJ.WallaceG. G. (2018). Tunable and efficient Tin modified nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers for electrochemical reduction of aqueous carbon dioxide. Adv. Energy. Mater.8:1702524. 10.1002/aenm.201702524
Summary
Keywords
energy conversion and storage, electrocatalysis, water splitting, CO2 reduction, nitrogen reduction reaction, fuel cell
Citation
Li J, Chen Y, Fan Z and Zhang Z (2021) Editorial: Emerging Technologies for Materials Design and Characterization in Energy Conversion and Storage. Front. Energy Res. 9:676876. doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2021.676876
Received
06 March 2021
Accepted
12 April 2021
Published
10 May 2021
Volume
9 - 2021
Edited by
Sheng S. Zhang, United States Army Research Laboratory, United States
Reviewed by
Dongshuang Wu, Kyoto University, Japan; Fudong Han, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States
Updates
Copyright
© 2021 Li, Chen, Fan and Zhang.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Zhicheng Zhang zczhang19@tju.edu.cn
This article was submitted to Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, a section of the journal Frontiers in Energy Research
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.