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Materials FocusVol. 4, pp. 259–261, 2015

(www.aspbs.com/mat)

A Special Issue on Advanced Materials forEnergy and Environmental RemediationMaterials play a very significant role in building technolo-gies that are capable of offering viable solutions to ourenergy challenges for the future and environmental reme-diation. The new ways to synthesize, modify the proper-ties, and fabricate devices using novel materials are beingexplored worldwide to achieve renewable energy conver-sion and storage. Further, the development of materialsfor sustainable fuel production and energy saving can helpto make the renewable energy technology more efficient.Recent research and developments on materials focusedon detailed understanding of material properties and toachieve the same through simple, economically viable andeco-friendly processes. The advancement in materials sci-ence and characterization techniques were much beneficialto develop several braches such as functional materials,nanomaterials, bio-materials etc. The method of synthesisand modification techniques played key role to fine tunethe crystal structure, crystalline phase, morphology, chem-ical composition, particle size which determine materialsproperties with high precision. Globally, a wide range offunctional materials/nanomaterials are being developed forvarious applications include energy, environmental, healthcare and space applications.

In order to address above issues and highlight therecent advances in the synthesis and designing of materi-als for energy and environmental applications using nano-materials, we have prepared this special issue on “Materialsfor energy and environmental remediation.” The researcharticles published in this special issue mainly focus on dif-ferent methods of synthesis of nano-materials and theirapplications for energy and environmental remediation.

This special issue consists of 1 review and 10 researcharticles. The review article describes Polymer Electrolytesin Dye Sensitized Solar cell by Rokesh et al.

The research articles include “SnS2/rGO: An efficientphotocatalyst for the complete degradation of organiccontaminants” by Babu et al., MnO2, a High Electrocat-alytic Energy Material to Synthesis Energy from Oxida-tion of Methanol in Fuel Cell by Subir Paul and AsmitaGhosh, Treatment of simulated textile dyeing wastewatersusing advanced oxidation processes—a bench-scale studyby Rajendiran and Kanmani, A novel Cobalt modified lay-ered double hydroxide for the efficient removal of Fluo-ride by M. Noorjahan et al., Temperature Effects on MgONanoparticles: Prepared by Green Route method and appli-cation of Seed Germination by C. H. Ashok et al., Co- andCo(Ru)-based catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis pre-pared by high power ultrasound by A. Di Michele et al.,

A low cost modified porous lava (pumice stone) for waterpurification by G. Deepthi Reddy et al., Facile and LargeScale Fabrication of Thick walled Carbon Nanotubes byUsing Waste Tire Pyrolysis Oil as Carbon Feedstock byC. Sathiskumar et al., Sono-Fenton degradation of BasicBlue 3 dye: Understanding the mechanism, parametriceffect and kinetic studies by S. Saravanan et al., SolarLight Activated AgxO/TiO2 Nanocomposites—A Promis-ing Photocatalyst for Enhanced Hydrogen Fuel Generationusing Biomass Derivatives by D. Praveen Kumar et al.Overall, we do strongly hope that this special issue may

make a significant contribution to the specified specialresearch fields. Indeed, we are thankful to the authors fortheir contributions and support for this issues in all possi-ble ways. We would like to also acknowledge the review-ers for their valuable time and involvement in reviewingthe manuscripts on time. Our special, respectful and sin-cere thanks attribute to Professor Ahmed Umar, Editor-in-Chief of Materials Focus, for his untiring guidance,and cooperation throughout the publication of this specialissue. Finally, we acknowledge the Editorial Office at theAmerican Scientific Publishers to publish this special issuein this promising journal.

Guest EditorsBernaurdshaw Neppolian

SRM Research InstituteSRM UniversityChennai, India

Muthupandian AshokkumarSchool of Chemistry

University of MelbourneMelbourne, AustraliaClaudia L. Bianchi

Dip. Chimica Fisica ed ElettrochimicaUniversità di Milano

Milano, ItalyM. V. Shankar

Department of Materials Science and NanotechnologyYogi Vemana University

Kadapa, IndiaSambandam Anandan

Department of ChemistryNational Institute of Technology

Trichy, India

M. KarthikEnergy Cooperative Research Centre

Parque TecnológicoMiñano (Álava), Spain

Mater. Focus 2015, Vol. 4, No. 4 2169-429X/2015/4/259/003 doi:10.1166/mat.2015.1251 259

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ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS

Bernaurdshaw Neppolian is currently working as a Professor at SRM Research Institute,SRM University, Kattankulathur, Chennai since January 2012. He obtained his Ph.D. degreefrom Department of Chemistry, Anna University, India year 2000 and then he joined asa Post Doctoral Researcher at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, South Koreafor two years (2000–2002). Later, Dr. Neppolian had been awarded with Japan Societyof Promotion of Science �JSPS�, prestigious fellowship to carry out research work at theDepartment of Applied Chemistry, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan (2002–2006).Dr. Neppolian had been awarded by KOSEF Brain Pool program to work as a ResearchProfessor in Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea for two years(2006–2008). Before joining at SRM University, he worked in Department of Chemistryunder the Discovery Project of Australian Research Council, University of Melbourne,

Australia for more than 3 years (2008–2011). He is author of 60 publications that have received around 3175 citationswith H-Index of 25. He has been working on the preparation of TiO2 based photocatalysts for energy and environmentalremediation studies. He is also working on advanced oxidation methods including ultrasound method for the degradationof organic pollutants. Recently, he started working on Polymer solar cells, H2 production by water splitting and Directmethanol oxidation fuel cell using metallic catalysts prepared by ultrasound assisted method.

Muthupandian Ashokkumar (Ashok) is a Physical Chemist who specializes in Sonochem-istry, teaches undergraduate and postgraduate Chemistry and is a senior academic staff mem-ber of the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne. He is also one of the AssociateDeans (Engagement and International) in the Faculty of Science. After obtaining his Ph.D.from the University of Madras, India (1989), he worked as a postdoc in France and Japanand began working in the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, in 1995. Ashok isa renowned sonochemist who has developed a number of novel techniques to characterizeacoustic cavitation bubbles and has made major contributions of applied sonochemistry tothe Food and Dairy industry. His research team has developed a novel ultrasonic process-ing technology for improving the functional properties of dairy ingredients. Recent researchalso involves the ultrasonic synthesis of functional nano- and biomaterials including protein

microspheres that can be used in diagnostic and therapeutic medicine. He is an Editorial Board Member of UltrasonicsSonochemistry, an international journal devoted to sonochemistry research. He has edited/co-edited several books andspecial issues for journals; published ∼280 refereed papers in high impact international journals and books. Ashok is therecipient of several prizes, awards and fellowships, including the Grimwade Prize in Industrial Chemistry. He is a Fellowof the RACI since 2007.

Claudia L. Bianchi is associate professor and the leader of the Process and Plants ResearchGroup for Industrial Chemistry at the University of Milan. Authors of more than 170 origi-nal research papers on International Journals with IF in the field of applied material scienceand environmental catalysis (h-index: 31). The Group involves people who have interests indifferent fields, such as inorganic materials, surfaces science, analytical and physical chem-istry, industrial chemistry and separation processes. The kind of research developed in thelaboratories has spillover effects both in environmental and energy field. The competencesof the Group deal with design and preparation of solid catalysts and nanomaterials, struc-ture modulation during nanopowders’ syntheses, catalysts deposition techniques on differentsupports, catalytic and photocatalytic tests and transformation and reactivity of waste or non-conventional feedstocks. Many collaborations are active with other researchers communitiesworking at Universities across the world.

260 Mater. Focus, 4, 259–261, 2015

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M. V. Shankar received his Ph.D. in Photocatalysis from Anna University, Chennai, Indiain 2003. He conducted post-doctoral work during 2004–2009 and gained broad experienceon development of nanomaterials, photocatalysis, sensors and environmental remediationwith eminent scientists in France, Japan and Taiwan. After his tenure as CNRS ResearchScientist (tenured track) in ELCASS Strasbourg, France, in 2009 return back to India andjoined as Associate Professor of Materials Science and Nanotechnology in Yogi VemanaUniversity, Kadapa. His current research interests are development of metal and metal oxidenanomaterials for heterogeneous catalytic applications such as hydrogen production, decom-position of organic pollutants, organic synthesis and Nano-biotechnology. To his credit, hehas high quality publications 31 research articles and more than 63 conference presentationsand 28 invited lectures both at national and international level. He holds two patents for

the fabrication and application of nanomaterials for artificial retina application. His research group in collaboration withIICT, hyderabad published highly efficient photocatalysts for hydrogen production in Chemical Communications and twopatent applications were filed.

Sambandam Anandan obtained his doctoral degree in Energy (Chemistry-Interdisciplinary)from the University of Madras (India) under the supervision of Professor P. Maruthamuthuwhere he worked on the Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. After postdoctoral research work withProfessor Minjoong Yoon (Chungnam National University, South Korea) and ProfessorShihe Yang (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong), he workedas a visiting researcher with Professor Masaharu Okazaki (National Institute of AdvancedIndustrial Science and Technology (AIST), Nagoya, Japan). Later he moved back to Indiaand continued his research as CSIR Pool Scientist with Professor A. K. Shukla (Director)at Central Electrochemical Research Institute-Chennai Unit. Then he moved to NationalInstitute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, where he has been Associate Professor of Phys-ical Chemistry and leads the research group Nanomaterials and Solar Energy Conversion

Processes. He spent short periods at University of Melbourne, Australia with Professor Franz Grieser and ProfessorM. Ashokkumar, Feng Chia University, Taiwan with Professor Jerry J. Wu, University of Loughborough, United Kingdomwith Professor U. Wijayantha and University of Alicante with Professor Roberto Gomez and Professor Teresa Lana-Villarreal. His research interests include hybrid semiconductor nanomaterials and its applications in solar fuel generation,dye-sensitized solar cells, organic solar cells, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, biomolecule sensing and other applications.He has authored about 145 original research papers published in international journals.

Mani Karthik is currently working as an Associate Researcher at Thermal Energy Stor-age Group, Energy Cooperative Research Centre, CIC ENERGIGUNE, Spain. Now he isworking on the development of porous materials and nanomaterials for the Thermal EnergyStorage (TES) and Electrical Energy Storage (EES) applications. He successfully completedhis Ph.D. (2005) in Chemistry (Materials Science and Heterogeneous Catalysis) at Depart-ment of Chemistry, Anna University, Chennai, TN, India. After his Ph.D., he joined asa Research Scientist (From March 2005 to March 2006) at Center for Functional Nano-materials, Department of Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technol-ogy (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea. Then, he worked as an Adjunct Assistant Professor(From February 2009 to July 2009) and Post-Doctoral Researcher (From September 2006 toJanuary 2009) at Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Chiao Tung University

(NCTU), Hsinchu, Taiwan. After three years his research activities in Taiwan, he joined as a Research Scientist (FromApril 2010 to February 2011) at Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Torino, Torino, Italy. His researchareas of specialisation include material science and nanotechnology, porous carbon materials, surface science and het-erogeneous catalysis, photocatalysts, green chemistry and fine-chemical synthesis, air quality management and pollutioncontrol, solar thermal energy storage and supercapacitors. He has 27 peer reviewed journal articles, 1 book chapter and 2European patents in his credit. He has participated and presented his research papers in several international and nationalconferences.

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