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.
1. How Metal Fuels Work
2. Metal Fuels Activation Towards Energy Release by Hydrolysis
3. How to Introduce Nanoporosity in Metal Fuels: Dealloying
4. Nanoporous Aluminum Fuel via Dealloying of Prefabricated Alloys
5. Nanoporous Aluminum Fuel via One-Spot Alloying and Dealloying
6. Suppressing the Pyrophoric Tendency of Activated Metal Fuels
7. Ways to Harness Energy During Hydrolysis of Activated Metal Fuels
8. Prospective and perspective outlook in metal fuel economy
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 (20132016) 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, as started with Eric Detsi in 2008.
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 TMSUSAand FASMUSA. 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.
