Sustainable energy sources are an immediate need to cope with the imminent issue of climate change the world is facing today.In particular,the long-lasting miniatured power sources that can supply energy continually t...Sustainable energy sources are an immediate need to cope with the imminent issue of climate change the world is facing today.In particular,the long-lasting miniatured power sources that can supply energy continually to power handheld gadgets,sensors,electronic devices,unmanned airborne vehicles in space and extreme mining are some of the examples where this is an acute need.It is known from basic physics that radioactive materials decay over few years and some nuclear materials have their half-life until thousands of years.The past five decades of research have been spent harnessing the decay energy of the radioactive materials to develop batteries that can last until the radioactive reaction continues.Thus,an emergent opportunity of industrial symbiosis to make use of nuclear waste by using radioactive waste as raw material to develop bat-teries with long shelf life presents a great opportunity for sustainable energy resource development.However,the current canon of research on this topic is scarce.This perspective draws fresh discussions on the topic while highlighting future directions in this wealthy arena of research.Graphical abstract A long-lasting miniaturised nuclear battery utilising 14C radioactive isotope as fuel.展开更多
Oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is the key step involved both in water splitting devices and rechargeable metal-air batteries,and hence,there is an urgent need for a stable and low-cost material for efficient OER.In the...Oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is the key step involved both in water splitting devices and rechargeable metal-air batteries,and hence,there is an urgent need for a stable and low-cost material for efficient OER.In the present investigation,Co-Fe-Ga-NiZn(CFGNZ)high entropy alloy(HEA)has been utilized as a low-cost electrocatalyst for OER.Herein,after cyclic voltammetry activation,CFGNZ-nanoparticles(NPs)are covered with oxidized surface and form high entropy(oxy)hydroxides(HEOs),exhibiting a low overpotential of 370 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cm^(2)with a small Tafel slope of 71 mV/dec.CFGNZ alloy has higher electrochemical stability in comparison to state-of-the art RuO2 electrocatalyst as no degradation has been observed up to 10 h of chronoamperometry.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM)studies after 10 h of long-term chronoamperometry test showed no change in the crystal structure,which confirmed the high stability of CFGNZ.The density functional theory(DFT)based calculations show that the closeness of d(p)-band centers to the Fermi level(EF)plays a major role in determining active sites.This work highlights the tremendous potential of CFGNZ HEA for OER,which is the primary reaction involved in water splitting.展开更多
基金support provided by the UKRI via Grants No.EP/S036180/1 and EP/T024607/1feasibility study awards to LSBU from the UKRI National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Hub (EP/V029746/1)+2 种基金Transforming the Foundation Industries:a Network+ (EP/V026402/1)the Hubert Curien Partnership award 2022 from the British Council,Transforming the Partnership award from the Royal Academy of Engineering (TSP1332)the Newton Fellowship award from the Royal Society (NIF\R1\191571).
文摘Sustainable energy sources are an immediate need to cope with the imminent issue of climate change the world is facing today.In particular,the long-lasting miniatured power sources that can supply energy continually to power handheld gadgets,sensors,electronic devices,unmanned airborne vehicles in space and extreme mining are some of the examples where this is an acute need.It is known from basic physics that radioactive materials decay over few years and some nuclear materials have their half-life until thousands of years.The past five decades of research have been spent harnessing the decay energy of the radioactive materials to develop batteries that can last until the radioactive reaction continues.Thus,an emergent opportunity of industrial symbiosis to make use of nuclear waste by using radioactive waste as raw material to develop bat-teries with long shelf life presents a great opportunity for sustainable energy resource development.However,the current canon of research on this topic is scarce.This perspective draws fresh discussions on the topic while highlighting future directions in this wealthy arena of research.Graphical abstract A long-lasting miniaturised nuclear battery utilising 14C radioactive isotope as fuel.
基金the Institute of Eminence(IoE)MHRD grant of the Indian Institute of Science.N.K.K.acknowledges the Newton Fellowship award from the Royal Society UK(NIF\R1\191571)the core research grant and Ramanujan Fellowship.C.S.T.acknowledges AOARD grant no.FA2386-19-1-4039.
文摘Oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is the key step involved both in water splitting devices and rechargeable metal-air batteries,and hence,there is an urgent need for a stable and low-cost material for efficient OER.In the present investigation,Co-Fe-Ga-NiZn(CFGNZ)high entropy alloy(HEA)has been utilized as a low-cost electrocatalyst for OER.Herein,after cyclic voltammetry activation,CFGNZ-nanoparticles(NPs)are covered with oxidized surface and form high entropy(oxy)hydroxides(HEOs),exhibiting a low overpotential of 370 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cm^(2)with a small Tafel slope of 71 mV/dec.CFGNZ alloy has higher electrochemical stability in comparison to state-of-the art RuO2 electrocatalyst as no degradation has been observed up to 10 h of chronoamperometry.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM)studies after 10 h of long-term chronoamperometry test showed no change in the crystal structure,which confirmed the high stability of CFGNZ.The density functional theory(DFT)based calculations show that the closeness of d(p)-band centers to the Fermi level(EF)plays a major role in determining active sites.This work highlights the tremendous potential of CFGNZ HEA for OER,which is the primary reaction involved in water splitting.
