Metals as Clean Fuels: Preparation and Stabilization by One-Spot Alloying and Dealloying (Acta Materialia Book Series) - Softcover

Detsi, Eric; DeHosson, Jeff Th. M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0443135371 ISBN 13: 9780443135378

Publisher: Elsevier, 2025

Synopsis

Metals as Clean Fuels explores the innovative use of metals as a sustainable energy source. It presents a scalable selective leaching method to activate metal fuels by increasing their surface-to-volume ratio, significantly enhancing their reactivity with water for hydrogen and heat generation. This approach positions metal fuels as a superior alternative to fossil fuels, offering higher energy density and the crucial benefit of generating energy without CO2 emissions. Additionally, the book addresses key questions and working principles in its initial chapters before delving into the energy densities of various metals, from zinc to aluminum.

Chapters 8 and 9 focus on novel sustainable fabrication methods for metal/metal nanocomposites, while Chapter 10 introduces an advanced methodology for analyzing porous material systems. This monograph is a pioneering work in discussing nanostructured metals as clean fuels, with the potential to drive significant advancements in energy applications and material science research.

• Examines various methods of metal fuel activation through nanostructuring, i.e., creating nanoporous metal fuels through selective chemical and electrolytic dealloying
• Discusses a novel, versatile electrolytic method for making nanoporous metals that nearly eliminates the loss of sacrificial materials
• Includes the characterization of the fascinating intertwining of two different items in porous structures, i.e., geometry and topology

About this title

About the Authors

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/.

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.

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.

From the Back Cover

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.

This book starts by describing how metal fuels work in Chapter 1, followed in Chapter 2 by methods to activate metal fuels to render them reactive with water. One of these metal fuel activation methods is by introducing nanoporosity in the metal, which is the focus of this book. Also advances in describing and characterizing the (nano) porosity are presented and discussed. In Chapter 3, authors describe how dealloying can be used as an effective method to introduce nanoporosity in metals. Chapters 4 and 5 present the use of dealloying to create nanoporous aluminum in a two-step and a one-spot process, respectively. Because activated metal fuels become pyrophoric, Chapter 6 describes ways to suppress this pyrophoricity tendency. In Chapter 7, ways to harness energy during hydrolysis of metal fuels are discussed, and in Chapter 8, authors close by a perspective and prospective outlook, including context of materials science & engineering in metal fuel economy. Metals as Clean Fuel is a valuable resource for researchers and scientists in the subject areas of materials science and engineering, and those working in the fields of green energy materials, hydrolysis and battery.

Edition details

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0443135371
• ISBN 13: 9780443135378
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260