Preparation of Mxenes and their Composite Materials for Energy Conversion

Abstract

Global community is facing challenges due to the climate change, increased world population and industrialization which has lead to visible and substantial increase in world-wide energy demand. Up to date, higher percentage of energy demand (80-85%) is fulfilled from fossil fuels. However fossil fuels produce greenhouse gases as byproducts causing threat to environment as well as human beings alarming upsurge in pollution. Thus, in the current situation the alternative energy sources with zero or minimum pollution are immensely needed. Hydrogen as fuel in fuel cell technology is most promising clean energy among all energy sources with eco-friendly biproduct. Therefore, the fuel cell is a strong contender to meet the global energy demand and to mitigate the environmental challenges. Still, due to the slower kinetics of cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), cost and scarcity of Pt and Pt based electrocatalyst in fuel cells, the technology is not truly viable. Thus, the developments of active electrocatalyst with metal-free/non-noble metal based materials are highly required to improve the kinetics of electroreduction of oxygen newline