Metals as Clean Fuels paves the way to metals as alternative clean fuels, by describing a scalable selective leaching method to activate metal fuels by increasing their surface-to-volume ratio, boosting in that way their reactivity with water for hydrogen and heat generation. Not only are metal fuels more energy-dense than fossil fuels, but importantly they can generate energy without CO2 emissions, unlike fossil fuels.
After addressing the key questions and working principles in Chapters 1-3, the authors structured the content of the book by discussing metals at different ends of the energy density scale. In doing so, they examine zinc, which has a relatively low energy density, in Chapters 4 and 5. In contrast, they cover aluminum, situated at the high-density end, in Chapters 6 and 7. Next, the monograph further focuses on novel sustainable methods for fabricating metal/metal nanocomposites without the loss of sacrificial materials, as discussed in Chapters 8 and 9. This sustainable synthesis approach minimizes material loss during the dealloying process and creates new opportunities for developing metal/metal nanocomposites made from dissimilar nanoporous metal layers stacked together.
Finally, the book shows that, in addition to chemical composition and geometrical defects like interfaces, topology is an important design parameter. An inspiring methodology based on Integral-Geometry Morphological Image Analysis for porous material systems is presented, demonstrating that this method effectively analyzes geometrical objects and topological patterns in various porous systems in Chapter 10.
The monograph is the first of its kind to discuss state-of-the-art nanostructured metals as clean fuels. This timely book has the potential to catalyze and advance research in a field that lies at the intersection of various materials science disciplines. It aims to create highly versatile material systems for energy applications.
Dehosson, Jeff Th M.: -
Jeff Th. M. DeHosson received a PhD in Physics from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands (with honors and highest distinction), and after his postdoctoral years in the USA (Northwestern University and UC Berkeley), he was appointed Professor in 1977 by the Crown (H.M. Queen Juliana). His passion is to carry out innovative and (pre-)competitive research in the field of materials sciences, with a particular emphasis on advances in (in situ) electron microscopy, lasers, and nanostructured materials, e.g., highly nanoporous materials, as started with Eric Detsi in 2008.
He is the Elected Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (division physics), the Royal Holland Society for Sciences and Humanities, and Academia Europaea; the Editor of Acta Materialia journals; and a Fellow of various scientific societies, including TMS--USA--and FASM--USA. He acts as the Honorary Professor of Tsinghua University, Beijing; UST, Beijing; and the University of Port Elizabeth, SA. For his scientific research, he was honored with several international awards, including the European Materials Gold Medal, and he became Knighted by the Crown in 2019 (Knighthood, Netherlands Lion). For details, see https: //www.rug.nl/staff/j.t.m.de.hosson/cv.
Detsi, Eric: -
Eric Detsi is currently an Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his BSc (2006), MSc (2008), and PhD (with honors and highest distinction, 2012) degrees in Applied Physics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands; afterward, he carried out his postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California in Los Angeles (2013-2016) as a Netherlands Science Foundation Rubicon Fellow.
He joined the University of Pennsylvania in 2016 as an Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Engineering. His current research involves electrochemical energy conversion and storage using nonconventional materials, such as liquid metals, nonprecious nanoporous metals, and disordered three-dimensional metal scaffolds. For details, see: https: //directory.seas.upenn.edu/eric-detsi/.
