Functional Nanomaterials from Waste and Low‐Value Natural Products: A Technological Approach Level

Abstract

Low‐ and negative‐value (waste) products represent a valuable resource. Its use as a source for the fabrication of high value materials represents a lucrative pathway to increasing sustainability and decreasing the economic cost of various industries. Thermochemical methods for the valorization of biowaste and low‐value natural products are simple and cheap yet sufficiently efficient to deliver significant economic benefits. Plasma‐based methods represent another family of technologies for waste‐to‐value conversion. The nanostructure nucleation and growth in plasmas involve a complex set of physical and chemical processes that occur in bulk plasma and on surfaces. The choice between these two types of technology assumes a complex optimization that takes into account several factors including the cost of precursors; initial outlay and operating cost of equipment; the cost of labor; the cost of production engineering including the research and development efforts for designing the industrial technology, which is typically higher for the plasma‐based systems, and so on. In this article a technology level comparison of thermochemical and plasma‐based techniques for the valorization of raw and waste biomass, where the intent is to use the resulting products for environmental remediation, energy storage, optoelectronics, and biomedical applications, is presented.

Nanoengineered Carbon‐Based Interfaces for Advanced Energy and Photonics Applications: A Recent Progress and Innovations

“…✓ Further development of cost-effective, highly productive, flexible, and eco-friendly methods for the formation of interfaces with different dimensionality and controlled transitions between them. [177][178][179][180] The spectrum of application for such systems is ultimately wide, ranging from extremely important ecological systems, e.g., nanomaterial-based marine antifouling materials that require sophisticated control of processes at the material-ecosystem interfaces, [181,182] novel aquaponic systems that require advanced functional materials and interfacial systems, [183,184] nanomaterials for waste management via green, efficient synthesis of valuable materials from lowcost natural products, [46,185] nanocomposites for supercapacitors and energy storage, [87,186] to space technology application where complex material systems could be used for, e.g., solid propellant supply in space thrusters [187] and building the human habitats. [188,189] ✓ Better approaches for modeling the nonstationary 3D processes of a surface formation and the effects of the surface interaction with flows of energy and material to establish the mechanisms of nucleation, growth, change of physical and chemical properties, generation of fields and gradients, including the self-sustained.…”

“…In addition to inorganic functional nanocomposites and nanomaterials, e.g. those derived from silica, [45,46] carbon-based materials, and metal oxide nanoparticles derived from organic feedstocks, including waste [47][48][49] and biomass feedstocks [50,51] have been gaining popularity, for they promise to deliver advanced performance at a minimal cost to the environment. It is worth noting that while synthesis of functional nanomaterials from minimally processed precursors is attractive, [52,53] in some cases, their production may be difficult to scale up without the loss of their intricate structure or quality, [54,55] with an immediate impact on the quality of the engineered interface.…”

Recent innovations in the technology and applications of low-dimensional CuO nanostructures for sensing, energy and catalysis

“…1–4 This is because the very existence of designed (intra-material and material–environment) interfaces with specific properties makes HMMs superior to simpler, often single-component, materials. The list of actual applications of HMMs is enormous, with the most relevant ones being biotechnology, 5,6 sensors 7–9 and biosensors, 10,11 energy harvesting systems, 12,13 nanomedicine, 14,15 photocatalysis 16 and chemical catalysis, 17,18 hydrogen energy, 19 water purification, 20 environmental protection 21 and space exploration. 22–25…”

“…[1][2][3][4] This is because the very existence of designed (intra-material and material-environment) interfaces with specific properties makes HMMs superior to simpler, often single-component, materials. The list of actual applications of HMMs is enormous, with the most relevant ones being biotechnology, 5,6 sensors [7][8][9] and biosensors, 10,11 energy harvesting systems, 12,13 nanomedicine, 14,15 photocatalysis 16 and chemical catalysis, 17,18 hydrogen energy, 19 water purification, 20 environmental protection 21 and space exploration. [22][23][24][25] Metal-oxide nanomaterials Over the past twenty years, researchers have investigated metaloxide nanomaterials extensively, showing their adaptivity to different length scales and presenting competitive morphological properties for various applications (Fig.…”

Spinel CoFe2O4 Nanoflakes: A Path to Enhance Energy Generation and Environmental Remediation Potential of Waste-Derived rGO

“…Waste from agricultural industry is increasingly attracting attention for the role it may play in environmental remediation and in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the global communities move towards a cleaner world [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. For material synthesis, biomass waste is a valuable source of carbon and trace minerals [ 4 , 5 , 6 ], where the micro- and nanostructure of the material may give rise to unusual material architectures without the need for complex templates or multi-step processes [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. With an attractive combination of properties such as good conductivity, high surface area and chemical reactivity, these multipurpose materials can underpin sustainable circular economy by enabling new efficient nanomaterial-based devices [ 13 , 14 ] and functional coatings [ 15 , 16 , 17 ].…”