Abstract:
The advent of the industrial revolution at the beginning of the 19th century spurred a large production of goods and services that required an enormous amount of fuel to energize the machinery. Renewable resources of energy have great prospects as future power sources; however, such resources are available only during a particular period or condition. For instance, the sun is not available at night; wind energy can be harnessed only when the wind speed is high. Thus, the intermittent nature of the nonconventional energy sources is a major challenge toward their widespread application and success. The scientific research communities and industries have started working on a clean renewable energy source instead of fossil fuels that cause environmental pollution, global warming, and rapid resource depletion [Bard and Faulkner 2000; Burke 2000]. Efficient and sustainable energy sources hold an important part in the context of energy storage applications. For many technology and commercial purposes, energy storage is the essential technology either to be used directly as energy sources for transport and electronics or to be combined with other energy storage devices, such as thermoelectric and piezoelectric, to efficiently use energy [Zhang et al. 2012; Conway 1999b]