Metal Nanocomposites for Energy and Environmental Applications

Environmental and Energy issues are the two major issues that our world is confronting nowadays. Utilitarian nanocomposites are rising materials for zillions of Energy and environmental applications. Nanomaterials are a different class of materials composed of metal, metal oxides/sulfides/phosphides (nanostructured and thin films) varying in levels of electronic structure, physical, chemical, and electromagnetic properties. There are several alkaline and alkali earth metal-based nanocomposites that are used in basic heterogeneous catalysis for cleaner fuel production. Whereas transition metal/metal oxide-based nanocomposites (TMMONs) like ZnO, TiO2, SnO2, ZrO2, and Fe3O4 are gaining tremendous attention as photocatalysts. Moreover, these transition metal/metal oxide-based nanocomposites consist of lucrative flexible mechanical properties along with extraordinary electrochemical performance to fabricate the natural observing gadgets. Recently, these TMMONs have been majorly employed as active electrodes in electrochemical cells and supercapacitors due to their excellent dielectric properties and high porosity. Even, nanocomposites of metals with carbon-based materials have got a lot of potential in energy storage applications due to their fast power energy delivery, long lifecycle, high power density, besides reasonably high energy density that can fill the gap between the batteries and the conventional capacitors. In this book chapter, we would thoroughly discuss the above-mentioned aspects of various metal/metal oxides-based nanocomposites employed in energy and environmental application.