Energy Production and Storage

Energy production and storage are central problems for our time. Inprinciple, abundant energy is available from the sun to run theearth in a sustainable way. Solar energy can be directly harnessedby agricultural and photovoltaic means, but the sheer scale of theenergy demand poses severe challenges, for example any majorcompetition between biomass production and food production wouldsimply transfer scarcity from energy to food. Indirect use of solarenergy in the form of wind looks also promising, especially forthose regions not blessed with abundant sunlight. Other modes suchas tidal and wave energy may well become important niche players.Inorganic chemistry plays a decisive role in the development ofnew energy technologies and this Volume covers somepromising modes of alternative energy production and storage thatminimize the atmospheric burden of fossil-derived carbon monoxide.No one production or storage mode is likely to dominate, at leastat first, and numerous possibilities need to be explored to comparetheir technical feasibility and economics. This provides thecontext for a broad exploration of novel ideas that we are likelyto see in future years as the field expands.This Volume covers a wide range of topics, such as: - Watersplitting, only water is a sufficiently cheap and abundant electronsource for global exploitation; - Energy conversion byphotosynthesis; - Molecular catalysts for water splitting; -Thermochemical water splitting; - Photocatalytic hydrogenproduction; - Artificial photosynthesis, progress of the SwedishConsortium; - Hydrogen economy; - Reduction of carbon dioxide touseful fuels; - Conversion of methane to methanol; - Dye sensitizedsolar cells; - Photoinitiated electron transfer in fuel cells; -Proton exchange membranes for fuel cells; - Intermediatetemperature solid oxide fuel cells; - Direct Ethanol fuel cells; -Molecular catalysis for fuel cells; - Enzymes and microbes in fuelcells; - Li-Ion batteries; - Magic Angle Spinning NMR studies ofbattery materials; Supercapacitors and electrode materials.About EIC BooksThe Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry (EIC) has provedto be one of the defining standards in inorganic chemistry, andmost chemistry libraries around the world have access either to thefirst or second print edition, or to the online version. Manyreaders, however, prefer to have more concise thematic volumes,targeted to their specific area of interest. This feedback from EICreaders has encouraged the Editors to plan a series of EIC Books,focusing on topics of current interest. They will appear on aregular basis, and will feature leading scholars in their fields.Like the Encyclopedia, EIC Books aim to provide both the startingresearch student and the confirmed research worker with a criticaldistillation of the leading concepts in inorganic and bioinorganicchemistry, and provide a structured entry into the fieldscovered.This volume is also available as part of Encyclopedia ofInorganic Chemistry, 5 Volume Set.This set combines all volumes published as EIC Books from 2007to 2010, representing areas of key developments in the field ofinorganic chemistry published in the Encyclopedia of InorganicChemistry. Findout more.