Grave-to-cradle dry reforming of plastics via Joule heating

Nanocellulose Hybrid Membranes for Green Flexible Electronics: Interface Design and Functional Assemblies

Flexible electronics have garnered significant attention in recent years. The emergence of membrane electronics addresses several limitations of rigid counterparts, such as high Young's modulus, poor biocompatibility, and poor responsiveness. Nevertheless, the development of traditional polymer and semiconductor membranes faces serious limitations. Nanocellulose (NC), known for its multifunctionality, biocompatibility, biodegradability, high mechanical strength, structural flexibility, and reinforcing capabilities, presents an excellent possibility to develop flexible electronics depending on the self-assembly behavior. Meanwhile, the combination of NC and functional fillers enables the fabrication of high-performance membranes with amplification capabilities, making them suitable for application in conductive materials for sensing and energy storage applications. The creation includes preparation strategies and potential applications. Moreover, the interface reaction mechanism and micro/nano scale morphology structure of carbon-based materials, polymers, and metal oxides combined with NC hybrid membranes are summarized from a molecular perspective. We discuss the design strategies and performance trends for improving mechanical properties, thermal conductivity, heat resistance, optical performance, and electrical conductivity of NC hybrid membranes. The recent advancements in nanocellulose for flexible sensors, thermal management, supercapacitors, and solar cells are evaluated along with perspectives on the current challenges and future directions in the development of NC membrane-based multifunctional flexible electronics. It will help improve the development of green flexible electronics, thereby advancing future investigations of this field.

Transformative 3D Printing of Carbon-metal Nanocomposites as Catalytic Joule Heaters for Enhanced Ammonia Decomposition

Electrified thermal chemical synthesis plays a critical role in reducing energy consumption and enabling the industrial decarbonization. While Joule heating offers a promising alternative to gas-burning furnace systems by directly heating substrates via renewable energy supply, most approaches can only heat the reactor, not the catalytic sites. This limitation stems from the lack of methods to on-demand create Joule heaters containing in situ loaded catalytic nanoparticles. This work introduces a scalable platform for producing carbonaceous Joule heaters embedded with catalytic nanoparticles from 3D-printed polypropylene precursors, prepared through crosslinking, metal nitration immersion, and pyrolysis steps. Specifically, sulfonate groups on crosslinked PP can bind with metal ions, yielding well-dispersed, nanosized particles within a carbon structure that maintains macroscopic dimensional accuracy throughout the manufacturing. The approach is modular, allowing control over particle size and composition. Structured carbon with in situ loaded nickel nanoparticles demonstrates efficient Joule heating, high catalytic activity, and significantly reduced activation energy for catalytic ammonia decomposition. This work provides an innovative material and manufacturing platform to produce structured, catalytically active Joule heaters for decarbonization of chemical synthesis and energy production.

Design and Application of Joule Heating Processes for Decarbonized Chemical and Advanced Material Synthesis

Atmospheric CO2 concentrations keep increasing at intensifying rates due to rising energy and material demands. The chemical production industry is a large energy consumer, responsible for up to 935 Mt of CO2 emissions per year, and decarbonization is its major goal moving forward. One of the primary sources of energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the chemical sector is associated with the production and use of heat for material synthesis, which conventionally was generated through the combustion of fossil fuels. To address this grand challenge, Joule heating has emerged as an alternative heating method that greatly increases process efficiency, reducing both energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In this Review, we discuss the key concepts that govern these Joule heating processes including material selection and reactor design, as well as the current state-of-the-art in the literature for employing these processes to synthesize commodity chemicals along with advanced materials such as graphene, metal species, and metal carbides. Finally, we provide a perspective on future research avenues within this field, which can facilitate the widespread adoption of Joule heating for decarbonizing industrial processes.