Hydrothermal Synthesis of Hybrid Nanoparticles for Future Directions of Renewal Energy Applications

Abstract

This chapter discusses the current development and future scope of the hydrothermal process for the synthesis of a plethora of technology grade materials for advance technological applications. It is used to derive the materials directly from an aqueous solution by controlling the thermodynamic variables such as temperature, pressure, and composition. Herein, the importance is not only given to the conventional hydrothermal process, rather on some of its hybrid techniques such as microwave-assisted, sol gel-assisted, ultrasound-assisted, electrochemical-assisted, optical radiation-assisted, and hot press-assisted hydrothermal methods. These hybrid techniques provide new pathways and opportunities for the synthesis of various kinds of advance materials with novel properties for advanced applications such as in energy production, targeted drug delivery, bio-imaging, and photo-catalyst. In this chapter, stress has been given to highlight the use of different hydrothermal techniques for the synthesis of various forms of the materials in different structures for the use of solar energy harvesting from water to hydrogen production and the assembly of dye-sensitized solar cells for direct conversion of solar to energy application through designing of photovoltaic cell.