This book reports recent advances on Process Monitoring (PM) to cope with the many challenges raised by the new production systems, sensors and "extreme data" conditions that emerged with Industry 4.0. Concepts such as digital-twins and deep learning are brought to the PM arena, pushing forward the capabilities of existing methodologies to handle more complex scenarios. The evolution of classic…
Polymers are the largest and most versatile class of biomaterials, being extensively applied for therapeutic applications. From natural to synthetic polymers, the possibilities to design and modify their physical-chemical properties make these systems of great interest in a wide range of biomedical applications as diverse as drug delivery systems, organ-on-a-chip, diagnostics, tissue engineerin…
This Special Issue reprint, "Advanced Polymer Nanocomposites II", addresses high-quality original and review papers, focused on the scientific discussion and practical application in the field of functional polymer nanocomposites, including: (a) optoelectronic materials (papers 1-9); (b) biomedical materials (papers 10-14); and (c) other functional polymer nanocomposites (papers 15-23). We hope…
This Special Issue, entitled “Advanced Polymer Nanocomposites”, collects high-level original and review papers, focused on scientific discussions and practical applications in the field of functional polymer nanocomposites, including (a) optoelectronic materials (papers 1–6), (b) biomedical materials (papers 7–12), and (c) other functional polymer nanocomposites (papers 13–18).
The use of composite materials is ubiquitous in every field of human activities, including in the agricultural, industrial, environmental, biomedical and transport sectors. After a pandemic with the simultaneous unfolding of an energy and climatic crisis, we now realize how necessary it is to carry out studies on composite materials based on polymers to positively affect our current society and…
With the development of modern society, environmental pollution and energy shortages have become the focus of attention worldwide. Most of the global energy supplies are generated from fossil fuel, which gives rise to environmental pollution and climate change. Photocatalysis technology, which can directly convert solar energy into high value-added fuel and chemical materials or degrade a wide …
Semiconductor photocatalysts have attracted a great amount of multidiscipline research due to their high potential for solar-to-chemical-energy conversion applications, ranging from water and air purification to hydrogen and chemical fuel production. This unique diversity of photoinduced applications has spurred major research efforts on the rational design and development of photocatalytic mat…
Photocatalysis is an advanced technique that transforms solar energy into sustainable fuels and oxidizes pollutants via the aid of semiconductor photocatalysts. The main scientific and technological challenges toward effective photocatalysis are the stability, robustness, and efficiency of semiconductor photocatalysts. For major practical applications in energy conversion (i.e., hydrogen evolut…
This reprint is comprised of eleven articles that are screened by our hard-working peer reviewers. It mainly focuses on the recent advances in electric motors and drives, to adapt to the ongoing trends of electrification in both transportation and industry. New structural motors, such as the axial flux machine and the multi-phase machine, are introduced because of their enhanced reliability for…
Thermal energy storage using phase change materials (PCMs) is a research topic that has attracted much attention in recent decades. This is mainly due to the potential use of PCMs as latent storage media in a large variety of applications. Although many kinds of PCMs are already commercial products, advanced materials with improved properties and new latent storage concepts are required to bett…