Challenge and Perspectives

Research and development efforts have been plentiful in recent years in attempts to create new electrochemical supercapacitor (ES) component materials to improve the performance and commercial viability of this technology. With incremental progress in the field of maferial development, considerable technical advancements in ESs have been achieved in the past decade. 

Electrolyte materials (solvents and ionic species) are also important components of ES devices. Traditionally, aqueous electrolyte solutions were used because they were nonhazardous and easy to handle. Aqueous electrolytes, however, offer limifed electrochemically stable operating potential windows (up to - 1.0 V). 

Despite marked improvements in recent years in ES electrode and electrolyte material areas, several challenges remain. In this chapter, the market challenges of ES development efforts will be first discussed, followed by defailed discussions of fhe progress and technical challenges facing elec-frode and elecfrolyfe maferial developments. In addition, the computational tools that can be utilized to supplement material development efforts will 

Despite promising results, SAPC has not yet been used for large commercial production. The new possibility of efficient SAPC over a wide range of support hydration [27, 28, 33] has technological importance since it significantly improves flexibility by avoiding a strict control of the hydration ratio. Therefore, this modification may open the way to apply SAPC on a commercial scale. 

Nevertheless major possibilities for using SAPC in the short term can be foreseen in fine and pharmaceutical chemistry, e.g., for the selective hydrogenation of a.P Unsaturated aldehydes such as retinal [43] and to the production of the commercially anti-inflammatory agent naproxen [44]. 

The hydroformylation of a,p-imsaturated esters by SAPC has also been investigated [34]. Several 2-formylpropanoate esters, which are widely used as intermediates in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals like rifamycin and vitamin E, were obtained using the water-soluble complexes. There are huge prospects for SAPC in the hydroformylation reaction for obtaining molecules having a broad-spectrum therapeutic activity. 

Using the techniques developed to synthesize the organometallic-based SAP catalysts, several enzyme-based SAP catalyst, using porous glass beads and the enzymes polyphenol oxidase and horseradish peroxidase have been studied [53]. These SAP catalysts were active in the reaction of phenol with O2 or H2O2, respectively. Thus, porous enzyme-based SAP catalysts can be synthesized. 

As recently reported, the efficiency of SAPC over a much wider hydration range will facilitate its use in industry. Two major commercial applications of SAPC are expected first, many fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals could be produced in better conditions due to high enantioselectivity and secondly, hydroformylation of liquid olefins in continuous fixed-bed reactors under mild conditions with relatively high productivity and selectivity is possible. 

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Schroder, D., Heinemann, C., Koch, W., Schwarz, H., 1997, Perspectives and Challenges in Physical Organic Chemistry , Pure Appl. Chem., 69, 273. 

Schmidt, W., Cesco, S., Santi, S., Pinton, R., and Varanini, Z. (2005). Water-extractable humic substances as nutrient acquisition signals for root hairs development in Arabidopsis. In Rizosphere 2004—Perspectives and Challenges,Hartmann, A., Schmid, M., Wenzel, W., and Hinnsinger, P., eds., GSF-Berich, Neuherberg, p. 71. 

Section 5 contains a summary of the basic mechanisms giving rise to spatio-temporal instabilities in electrochemical systems and discusses perspectives and challenges in future research. 

R327 V. Domenici, The Role of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in the Study of Partially Ordered Materials Perspectives and Challenges , Pure Appl. Chem., 2011, 83, 67. 

Deowan, A.S., Hoinkis, J. Patzold, C. (2008) Low-energy reverse osmosis membranes for arsenic removal from groundwater. In Battacharya, P, RamanaOian, A.L., Bundschuh, J., Keshari, A.K. Chandrasekharam, D. (eds.) Groundwater for sustainable development problems, perspectives and challenges. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. pp. 275-386. 

J. Gunn, M. Zhang, Polyblend nanofibers for biomedical applications perspectives and challenges. Trends Biotechnol. 28 (2010) 189-197. 

Welman, A. D. Maddox, I. S. (2003). Exopolysaccharides from lactic acid bacteria perspectives and challenges. Trends In Biotechnology, 21, 269-274. 

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