Design, Engineering, and Characterization of Multifunctional Nanomaterials and Interface Structures for Energy and Environmental Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging technologies for clean energy conversion and storage and sustainable environmental catalysis are paramount for modern civilization and aim to provide the next level of transformative changes in societal life and address critical global problems such as climate warming, tackling of greenhouse gas emissions, and CO₂ capture and removal. The high-energy-density metal, metal-ion, metal–sulfur, metal–air, and metal–CO₂ batteries, fuel cells, photo- and electro-catalysts for hydrogen generation by water-splitting, and CO₂ catalytic conversion are currently under intensive investigation due to their potential high efficiency, promising large-scale applications, and virtually no pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. Complex and often hierarchical structures, interfacial phenomena, and phase transformations that govern the operation of various energy conversion and storage devices and catalytic systems require detailed, down to the atomic level, structural and compositional characterization that can be directly related to their performance and functional properties at multiple scales. This Special Issue will cover recent research results describing innovative designs, diverse engineering, and characterization aspects of multifunctional nanostructured materials and interfacial structures for future energy conversion, storage, and sustainable environmental catalysis. In addition, computational and experimental works, short communications, and review articles that explain and overview the mechanisms involved in energy conversion and storage and environmental catalysis are welcome.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Emerging clean technologies for energy conversion, storage, and sustainable environmental catalysis, structure–property relationships, synthesis, processing, and testing of nanostructured materials for energy conversion, storage and environmental catalysis, hybrid energy storage, and conversion systems;
• Characterization techniques for energy conversion, storage, and sustainable environmental catalysis (electron, X-ray, ion, and scanning probe microscopies, diffraction, spectroscopies, tomography, in situ, operando, ex situ);
• Fuel cells, electrocatalysts, oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER);
• High-energy-density batteries (metal, metal-ion, metal–S, metal–air), nanostructured electrode and electrolyte materials, interfacial structures, metal plating/stripping, electrolyte decomposition, solid electrolyte interface (SEI), battery safety, and battery transport modeling;
• Prospective routes for CO₂ catalytic conversion (photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and single-atom catalysis) and enhanced carbon capture with ionic liquids and MOFs;
• “Green” sustainable technologies for CO₂ utilization (mineralization, synthesis of CO₂ copolymers, polycarbonates, urea fertilizers, Li–CO₂ batteries, etc.), selective CO₂ separation/storage in high-performance nanoporous membranes, and direct air capture strategies.

Dr. Vladimir Oleshko
Guest Editor

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