Reseña del libro "Introduction to Materials for Advanced Energy Systems (en Inglés)"
This first of its kind text enables today?s students to understand current and future energy challenges, to acquire skills for selecting and using materials and manufacturing processes in the design of energy systems, and to develop a cross-functional approach to materials, mechanics, electronics and processes of energy production. While taking economic and regulatory aspects into account, this textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the range of materials used for advanced energy systems, including fossil, nuclear, solar, bio, wind, geothermal, ocean and hydropower, hydrogen, and nuclear, as well as thermal energy storage and electrochemical storage in fuel cells. A separate chapter is devoted to emerging energy harvesting systems.Integrated coverage includes the application of scientific and engineering principles to materials that enable different types of energy systems. Properties, performance, modeling, fabrication, characterization and application of structural, functional and hybrid materials are described for each energy system. Readers will appreciate the complex relationships among materials selection, optimizing design, and component operating conditions in each energy system. Research and development trends of novel emerging materials for future hybrid energy systems are also considered. Throughout the text, images, illustrations and terminology boxes clarify core concepts, techniques, and processes. At the end of each chapter, references serve as a gateway to the primary literature in the field, and exercises are provided to aid understanding. Each chapter is basically a self-contained unit, easily enabling instructors and professors to adapt this book for coursework.Energy is the single most valuable resource for human activity and the basis for all human progress. Materials play a key role in enabling technologies that can offer promising solutions to achieve accessible, renewable, and sustainable energy pathways for the future. However, energy conversion and storage processes have limited efficiencies, cost factors, and environmental effects. Research on fundamental science and engineering of micro-and nano-materials, including the exchange of photons and electrons among quantized energy levels of semiconductors, molecules, and metals at nanoscale spatial scales and at fast or ultrafast time scales, is key to improving these factors for sustainable energy production. To make sustainable energy technologies competitive with fossil fuel technologies requires probing and understanding these quantum phenomena, and this understanding must then be translated into effective control of the functionality and performance of the materials through optimized manufacturing processes and proper integration methods.This textbook is suitable for students in science and engineering who seek to obtain a comprehensive understanding of different energy processes, and how materials enable energy harvesting, conversion, and storage. In setting forth the latest advances and new frontiers of research, the text also serves as a comprehensive reference on energy materials for experienced materials scientists, engineers, and physicists.
