Metal Oxide-Carbon Hybrid Materials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications reviews the advances in the fabrication and application of metal oxide-carbon-based nanocomposite materials. Their unique properties make them ideal materials for gas-sensing, photonics, catalysis, opto-electronic, and energy-storage applications.
In the first section, the historical background to the hybrid materials based on metal oxide-carbon and the hybridized metal oxide composites is provided. It also highlights several popular methods for the preparation of metal oxide-carbon composites through solid-state or solution-phase reactions, and extensively discusses the materials' properties.
Fossil fuels and renewable energy sources cannot meet the ever-increasing energy demands of an industrialized and technology-driven global society. Therefore, the role of metal oxide-carbon composites in energy generation, hydrogen production, and storage devices, such as rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors, is of extreme importance. These problems are discussed in in the second section of the book.
Rapid industrialization has resulted in serious environmental issues which in turn have caused serious health problems that require the immediate attention of researchers. In the third section, the use of metal oxide-carbon composites in water purification, photodegradation of industrial contaminants, and biomedical applications that can help to clean the environment and provide better healthcare solutions is described.
The final section is devoted to the consideration of problems associated with the development of sensors for various applications. Numerous studies performed in this area have shown that the use of composites can significantly improve the operating parameters of such devices.
Metal Oxide-Carbon Hybrid Materials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications presents a comprehensive review of the science related to metal oxide-carbon composites and how researchers are utilizing these materials to provide solutions to a large array of problems.
Butt, Faheem K.: - Dr. Faheem K. Butt currently works as an associate professor of physics in the Division of Science and Technology at the University of Education, Lahore. Before joining the University of Education, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He completed his postdoctoral research fellowship from the Centre for Sustainable Nanomaterials, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, in 2015. He completed his PhD studies at the Beijing Institute of Technology, China. His interests are in optoelectronics devices, energy storage/conversion in nanomaterials, and theoretical studies of materials using various software. He has published more than 120 research articles/book chapters as an author/coauthor in peer-reviewed international SCI journals with various publishers, including the American Chemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Elsevier, Springer, American Scientific Publishers, and Taylor & Francis, with an h-index of 26 and 3000 citations. He has also provided his services as a reviewer/editor/editorial board member for international publishers. Dr. Faheem has won several national/international awards. He is also a Higher Education Commission (HEC)-approved supervisor for PhD awardees of HEC scholarships, as well as general PhD scholars.
Chaudhry, Muhammad Akram: - Dr. Muhammad Akram Chaudhry currently serves as assistant professor of chemistry at the Government Associate College, Raiwind (Lahore, Pakistan). He holds his MSc (chemistry) from the Institute of Chemistry, University of the Punjab, Lahore (Pakistan). He taught at the University of Baluchistan, Quetta for 3 years and attended the University of the Punjab, where he completed his MPhil (chemistry). During his stay there, he worked on the spectrophotometric determination of fluoroquinolone drugs and developed a simple and cheap method for their determination. In 2011, he joined Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia, to pursue research work in the field of nanosized ceramic materials and received his doctorate in 2014. His PhD dissertation was on the "Synthesis and Characterization of Ceramic Nanoparticles through Continuous Microwave Flow Synthesis Process." His current research interest is focused on continuous microwave flow synthesis and the microwave-assisted synthesis of nanostructured materials, including biomaterials and photocatalytic materials. His work also involves probing the properties and applications of nanostructured material in various fields especially in biomedical and electrochemical devices. He is working collaboratively with various research groups and has published more than 35 research articles/book chapters as an author/coauthor in peer-reviewed international SCI-indexed journals with various publishers, such as Elsevier, Springer, IOP, and Wiley, with an h-index of 16 and 1003 citations.
Hussain, Rafaqat: - Prof. Rafaqat Hussain graduated with a BSc (Hons) in chemistry from the University College London, where he also received his MSc in chemistry and a PhD in biochemical engineering. To pursue a career in teaching, he obtained a postgraduate certificate in education (chemistry) from the Goldsmiths College, London. In 2007, he moved to Pakistan to lead an ambitious project to establish the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials (IRCBM) at the COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Lahore campus. After more than 3 years at the IRCBM, he took up a teaching position at the Department of Chemistry, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), where he established a successful materials research group. After more than 5 years teaching and supervising numerous research students at UTM, he returned to CUI to establish the Department of Chemistry at the Islamabad campus. He is actively involved in publishing research articles in leading high-impact journals, an author of over 50 research articles (impact factor >150) and several book chapters, and a winner of many research grants in the field of materials science.
