For energy-related applications such as solar cells, catalysts, thermo-electrics, lithium-ion batteries, graphene-based materials, supercapacitors, and hydrogen storage systems, nanostructured materials have been extensively studied because of their advantages of high surface to volume ratios, favorable transport properties, tunable physical properties, and confinement effects resulting from their nanoscale dimensions. Due to their high energy and power densities, supercapacitors are potential power storage technologies. In this case, carbon nanomaterials, in particular carbon nanotubes, graphene, mesoporous carbon, and their hybrids, have received extensive research interest as effective electrode materials for supercapacitors because of their distinctive hierarchical structure, excellent electrical and mechanical properties, and large specific surface area. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been receiving extensive attention because of their high specific energy density. In LIBs, graphite is the most commonly used anode material; however, lithium-ion intercalation in graphite is limited, hindering the battery charge rate and capacity. Recently, nanowire/graphene hybrids have been developed for the enhancement of the LIB performance; therefore, we present a new approach of hydrothermally growing uniform nanowires on a graphene aerogel to further improve the performance. This nanowire/graphene aerogel hybrid not only exhibited the large surface area of graphene aerogels but also increased the specific surface area for electrode–electrolyte interaction. Therefore, this new nanowire/graphene aerogel hybrid anode material can enhance the specific capacity and charge–discharge rate. There is enormous interest in the use of graphene-based materials for energy storage. Graphene-based materials have great potential for application in supercapacitors owing to their unique two-dimensional structure and inherent physical properties, such as excellent electrical conductivity and large specific surface area. In recent years, the development of different organic and inorganic nanostructured materials such as nanocarbons, metal oxides (W₁₈O₄₉ and Co₃O₄), metal sulphides (MoS₂ and WS₂), graphene nanosheets, and conducting polymers has enabled the fabrication of high-performance devices. MoS₂, a typical layered transition-metal dichalcogenide material, has attracted significant attention for application in heterogeneous catalysis, lithium ion batteries and electrochemical energy storage systems considering its unique layered structure and electronic properties. Thus, transition metal dichalcogenide nanomaterials have shown important research progress in the field of energy conversion and storage.

In fuel cell applications, the proton exchange membrane (PEM) is the major component where the balance among dimensional stability, proton conductivity, and durability is a long-term trail. In this research, a series of blended SPEEK/SPPO membranes were designed by varying the amounts of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) into sulfonated poly(phenylene) oxide (SPPO) for fuel cell application. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to confirm the successful synthesis of the blended membranes. Morphological features of the fabricated membranes were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results showed that these membranes exhibited homogeneous structures. The fabricated blended membranes SPEEK/SPPO showed ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 1.23 to 2.0 mmol/g, water uptake (W_R) of 22.92 to 64.57% and membrane swelling (MS) of 7.53 to 25.49%. The proton conductivity of these blended membranes was measured at different temperature. The proton conductivity and chemical stability of the prepared membranes were compared with commercial membrane Nafion 117 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Missouri, United States) under same experimental conditions. The proton conductivity of the fabricated membranes increased by enhancing the amount of SPPO into the membrane matrix. Moreover, the proton conductivity of the fabricated membranes was investigated as a function of temperature. Results demonstrated that these membranes are good for applications in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC).

The present study is aimed to access the photodegradation efficiency of methylene blue dye using CoFe₂O₄ and Co_0.1Al_0.03Fe_0.17O_0.4 nanoparticles. The synthesis of spinel ferrites nanoparticles was performed by a facile sol-gel method. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDS, Nitrogen adsorption/desorption and UV–Visible spectroscopy. The XRD studies confirmed the spinel cubic structure of ferrite. It was also found that the crystallinity increases at an annealing temperature of 800 °C. The application of these nanoparticles for methylene blue’s photocatalytic degradation was explored and also the optimization of several parameters involving dye’s concentration, amount of catalyst and pH of the solution was done. Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue showed that at pH 11, using 200 W visible light bulb and in 120 min; 93% methylene blue dye was degraded by using 0.1 g of Co_0.1Al_0.03Fe_0.17O_0.4.

This manuscript describes the synthesis of dimethylethanolamine (DMEA)-grafted anion exchange membrane (AEM) by incorporating dimethylethanolamine as ion-exchange content into the polymer matrix via the solution casting method. The synthesis of the DMEA-grafted AEM was demonstrated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The prepared DMEA-grafted AEM exhibited higher thermal stability, homogeneous morphology, water uptake (W_R) of 115%, and an ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 2.70 meq/g. It was used for the adsorptive removal of methyl orange (MO) from an aqueous solution via batch processing. The effect of several operating factors, including contact time, membrane dosage, initial concentration of aqueous dye solution, and temperature on the percentage discharge of MO and adsorption capacity, was evaluated. Experimental data for adsorption of MO onto the DMEA-grafted AEM was analyzed with two parameter and three parameter nonlinear adsorption isotherm models but fitted best using a nonlinear Freundlich isotherm. Adsorption kinetics were studied by using several models, and attained results showed that experimental data fitted well to pseudo-second-order kinetics. A thermodynamic study showed that adsorption of MO onto the prepared DMEA-grafted AEM was an endothermic process. Moreover, it was a feasible and spontaneous process.

Cell phones, tablets, laptop computers, and many other consumer technology gadgets use lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).