6
1 Introduction
It is very important to understand the basic anisotropic growth process of nanomaterials, so rational and controlled synthesis can be rationally designed to prepare
nanostructures suitable for specific applications. A comprehensive book that summarizes the exciting work on controlled synthesis of functional nanomaterials for electrochemical energy storages is rarely found, which, however, is highly needed to
further promote related research and development efforts to solve the energy issues
we are now facing. The goal of this review is to illustrate the recent advance of this
field by investigating the inherent physical and chemical properties of these functional nanomaterials and concluding the specific advantages and potentials of these
materials. The literature has been organized depending on the structural dimensions and then following a materials’ classification of the nano-objects involves
such as quantum dots (e.g., carbon quantum dots, metal-nonmetal quantum dots,
other quantum dots), one-dimensional nanomaterials (e.g., one-dimensional metal
oxide/sulfide), two-dimensional nanomaterials (e.g., typical materials with twodimensional nanomaterials), three-dimensional nanomaterials (e.g., typical materials
with three-dimensional nanomaterials) and superstructure nanomaterials. Based on
the potential advantages of these nanomaterials, their different promising applications in the field of energy conversion and storage especially batteries (e.g., lead-acid
batteries, lithium battery and lithium-ion batteries, sodium ion battery and other metal
ion batteries, halogen ion batteries metal-gas batteries and others) and supercapacitors (e.g., double-layer capacitor, qseudocapacitor, hybrid capacitor) are discussed,
which mainly focus on the preparation methods, properties, and performances of
functional nanomaterials, and some formation mechanisms of specific functional
materials. In the last section “Conclusions and outlook”, we propose the potential
developments in the field of functional nanomaterials for electrochemical energy
storages. A brief discussion on the major opportunities facing these functional nanomaterials will be showed. Some concluding remarks will try to determine what could
be the next challenges of this fascinating research area.
We hope that this book will constitute a useful tool for the non-specialized readers
who want to get an overview of the current trends related to functional nanomaterials
for electrochemical energy storages, or for experts who want to look for a precise
entry in a particular domain of application. Because of the explosion of publications
in this exciting and emerging field, we do not claim that this book includes all of the
published work (especially the most recently published work). We apologize to the
authors of many outstanding research papers, that owing to the large activity in this
field, we have unintentionally left out.
References
Abe H, Liu J, Ariga K (2016) Catalytic nanoarchitectonics for environmentally compatible energy
generation. Mater Today 19(1):12–18
Agubra VA, Zuniga L, Flores D, Villareal J, Alcoutlabi M (2016) Composite nanofibers as advanced
materials for Li-ion, Li-O 2 and Li-S batteries. Electrochim Acta 192:529–550
1 Introduction
It is very important to understand the basic anisotropic growth process of nanomaterials, so rational and controlled synthesis can be rationally designed to prepare
nanostructures suitable for specific applications. A comprehensive book that summarizes the exciting work on controlled synthesis of functional nanomaterials for electrochemical energy storages is rarely found, which, however, is highly needed to
further promote related research and development efforts to solve the energy issues
we are now facing. The goal of this review is to illustrate the recent advance of this
field by investigating the inherent physical and chemical properties of these functional nanomaterials and concluding the specific advantages and potentials of these
materials. The literature has been organized depending on the structural dimensions and then following a materials’ classification of the nano-objects involves
such as quantum dots (e.g., carbon quantum dots, metal-nonmetal quantum dots,
other quantum dots), one-dimensional nanomaterials (e.g., one-dimensional metal
oxide/sulfide), two-dimensional nanomaterials (e.g., typical materials with twodimensional nanomaterials), three-dimensional nanomaterials (e.g., typical materials
with three-dimensional nanomaterials) and superstructure nanomaterials. Based on
the potential advantages of these nanomaterials, their different promising applications in the field of energy conversion and storage especially batteries (e.g., lead-acid
batteries, lithium battery and lithium-ion batteries, sodium ion battery and other metal
ion batteries, halogen ion batteries metal-gas batteries and others) and supercapacitors (e.g., double-layer capacitor, qseudocapacitor, hybrid capacitor) are discussed,
which mainly focus on the preparation methods, properties, and performances of
functional nanomaterials, and some formation mechanisms of specific functional
materials. In the last section “Conclusions and outlook”, we propose the potential
developments in the field of functional nanomaterials for electrochemical energy
storages. A brief discussion on the major opportunities facing these functional nanomaterials will be showed. Some concluding remarks will try to determine what could
be the next challenges of this fascinating research area.
We hope that this book will constitute a useful tool for the non-specialized readers
who want to get an overview of the current trends related to functional nanomaterials
for electrochemical energy storages, or for experts who want to look for a precise
entry in a particular domain of application. Because of the explosion of publications
in this exciting and emerging field, we do not claim that this book includes all of the
published work (especially the most recently published work). We apologize to the
authors of many outstanding research papers, that owing to the large activity in this
field, we have unintentionally left out.
References
Abe H, Liu J, Ariga K (2016) Catalytic nanoarchitectonics for environmentally compatible energy
generation. Mater Today 19(1):12–18
Agubra VA, Zuniga L, Flores D, Villareal J, Alcoutlabi M (2016) Composite nanofibers as advanced
materials for Li-ion, Li-O 2 and Li-S batteries. Electrochim Acta 192:529–550