Dear Readers,
It is my great pleasure to introduce the last EMMR issue of this year. Time definitely flies, but research in the particular field of materials goes fortunately forward, which is good news for science and for our journal. In a world seeking for reduced energy consumption, the particular need for materials able to help reaching that goal is crucial. For that purpose, appropriate strategies must be conducted. Future materials should for example be able to transform efficiently natural resources like water or light into energy. For that latter application, the continuous development of opto-electronic materials is definitely necessary. In parallel, producing less heavy vehicles made out of lighter materials is another important challenging strategy which contributes to limiting the use of energy. However, lighter materials should be as durable as standard steel or aluminum, which are today the main materials used in automotive applications. Magnesium, which is an interesting replacement candidate, remains for example less corrosion resistant. Regarding these considerations, in the 2024 December issue of EMMR journal, our readers will be able to learn about how additives can be useful to prevent the corrosion of materials or improve the opto-electronical performances of devices.
Zhang et al.1 presents a strategy in order to integrate urea-formaldehyde microcapsules containing Cerium nitrate in an epoxy resin coating for anti-corrosion purpose. In that approach the corrosion inhibitor is directly integrated into the microcapsules. This allows a delayed release of the corrosion inhibitor, which depends on the degradation of the capsule. The treatment is expected to slow down the corrosion of magnesium parts for example, which are characterized by an outstanding strength/weight ratio. The study investigates in particular the effect of various capsule material compositions as well as Cerium Nitrate content proportions on the corrosion resistance of coated magnesium. For that purpose scratched coatings were immersed in 3.5 wt.% NaCl, and the anticorrosion performance of the coating was evaluated for 120 h by EIS. Results show definitely the efficacy of the approach.
Regarding the improvement of opto-electronical properties of materials, paper by Al-Yousef et al.2 studies the effect of adding CuO nanoparticles on the optical properties of a Methylcellulose biopolymer. CuO was added in various concentrations. Results show that the presence of the nanoparticles provides enhanced electrical conductivity, making the nanocomposite suitable for applications in electronic devices, sensors, and energy storage systems. Resulting SEM images show a uniform distribution of CuO inside the composite with nanoparticles size ranging from 10 to 50 nm. Authors demonstrate that the narrower bandgap of copper oxide (CuO) provides the material with extremely high optical absorption properties. The results indicate globally that the MC/CuO films have better optical properties, which increases their applicability in photovoltaic applications.
In the field of electrochromic devices, paper by Gençyılmaz3 investigates how adding a vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) layer on a substrate using an ultrasonic spray technique at 300°C can increase the light absorption properties and the electrical conductivity of the substrate material. Chemical spraying technique was used in the production of vanadium oxide films as the technique is more advantageous than other techniques due to the cost of film production and the ability to produce large bases. After formation, films were annealed separately at various temperatures in an air medium for 1 h. The obtained films had a crystalline structure in the V2O5 phase as could be identified by AFM images. This means that the crystal structure of the films can be improved by annealing without losing the V2O5 phase. It has been shown that the resulting films can have smoother band edges as a result of annealing. The bandgap energy of the films increased in particular from 2.10 to 2.44 eV with annealing. Globally the paper brings out that there is strong potential in using vanadium oxide (VOx) films in the V2O5 phase, as the high absorption property makes it an excellent candidate for applications like catalysts, electrochromic devices, optical switching devices or reversible cathode materials for Li batteries.
