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EDITORIAL article

Front. Energy Res., 12 November 2020
Sec. Electrochemical Energy Storage
This article is part of the Research Topic Three-Dimensional Carbon Architectures for Energy Conversion and Storage View all 10 articles

Editorial: Three-Dimensional Carbon Architectures for Energy Conversion and Storage

  • 1Department of Chemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, United States
  • 2School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China
  • 3School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
  • 4Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, South Korea

Meeting our expectation, this Research Topic has served as a global forum to report, communicate, and discuss the state-of-the-art of three-dimensional (3D) carbon materials in the context of energy conversion and storage. By the closing date in mid-September, 2020, the Research Topic has collected nine manuscripts contributed from 58 authors and gathered over 13000 views in total. These data unequivocally demonstrate the impact and popularity of 3D carbon materials in electrochemical energy conversion and storage.

The six research articles highlight the versatility of 3D carbon architectures in a plethora of applications associated with energy conversion and storage. Luo et al. demonstrated a 3D network consisting of helical carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxide nanosheets. This material functioned as sulfur hosts in Li-sulfur batteries. Nawwar et al. reported 3D Fe3O4-decorated carbon nanotube assemblies for capacitive charge storage. Yang et al. anchored Rh nanoparticles on 3D graphene aerogels to synthesize methanol oxidation catalysts in direct methanol fuel cells. Wang et al. fabricated symmetric supercapacitors using 3D porous graphene nanosheets derived from chitosan. Guo et al. sandwiched fluorophosphate NaVPO4F nanoparticles between amorphous carbon/reduced graphene oxide 3D hosts, which led to high-performance cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries. Liu et al. supported sulfur-deficient MoS2-x nanoflakes onto 3D macroporous carbon paper and made efficient oxygen-reduction catalysts to promote the electrochemical charge-storage performance of Li-O2 batteries.

Additionally, the Research Topic also includes two review articles. Galek et al. surveyed the 3D hierarchically porous carbon materials as electrodes in electrochemical capacitors. Feng et al. reviewed the 3D, ordered porous carbon materials for applications in electrocatalysis, rechargeable batteries, and supercapacitors. Both reviews timely summarized the state-of-the-art development of 3D porous carbon materials in energy conversion and storage.

Last but not least, Liu commented on several overlooking issues about 3D porous carbon supercapacitor electrodes, as well as discussed potential solutions to guide future researchers in relevant research fields.

The successful conclusion of this Research Topic is impossible without the consistent support from the professional editorial team of Frontiers in Energy Research, our authors, reviewers, and readers. We, as the guest editors of this Research Topic, are grateful for the in-house editors. They have provided us step-by-step instructions on how to initiate, disseminate, promote, and maintain our Research Topic. We appreciate all the authors to choose our Research Topic to publish their high-quality research works, thorough reviews, and thoughtful comments. We thank all the reviewers for keeping high bars to ensure the scientific rigidity, data integrity, and presentation clarity of all the submitted manuscripts. We hope that readers of our Research Topic will find the collected articles informative, insightful, and inspiring.

Author Contributions

TL drafted and polished the editorial. All other authors proofread and approved the submission of this editorial.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that this editorial is written without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Keywords: three-dimensional, carbon, energy conversion, energy storage, batteries, supercapacitors, electrocatalysis

Citation: Liu T, Zhai T, Shi K and Kim H-K (2020) Editorial: Three-Dimensional Carbon Architectures for Energy Conversion and Storage. Front. Energy Res. 8:611537. doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2020.611537

Received: 29 September 2020; Accepted: 19 October 2020;
Published: 12 November 2020.

Edited by:

Jun Yan, Harbin Engineering University, China

Reviewed by:

Xu Xiao, Drexel University, United States

Copyright © 2020 Liu, Zhai, Shi and Kim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Tianyu Liu, tliu23@vt.edu

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.