State-of-the-Art Materials toward Efficient Solar Energy Harvesting

Dear Colleagues,

The energy and environmental crises continue to threaten the future of humanity, as the environmental impact of non-renewable energy sources will certainly affect the sustenance of the earth. Numerous sources of renewable energy have been studied, namely wind, biomass, tidal, and solar. Solar energy applications continue to be studied, particularly as the sun provides one of the most bountiful energy sources via its utilization as sunlight. The abundance of energy in sunlight allows many types of semiconductors to be employed as energy harvesters, spanning a wide range of solar radiation wavelengths to be exploited. Sunlight can be applied in numerous ways, as the cost-free energy source can be utilized by semiconductors to generate electricity in photovoltaic cells, to split water molecules to generate hydrogen and degrade pollutants via photocatalytic reactions. This Special Issue will focus on state-of-the-art materials that generate further variations of materials that may be employed in solar energy applications. Contributions to this Special Issue may attend to topics that include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Semiconductors for solar energy application
• Synthesis
• Nanoparticles
• Nanostructured thin films
• Nanocomposites
• Characterization and applications
• Photovoltaic materials
• Photodegradation
• Hydrogen generation

Dr. Salh Alhammadi
Dr. Amr Hussein Mady Hussein
Guest Editors

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• semiconductors for energy applications
• thin film photovoltaic solar cell
• solar energy
• photocatalytic degradation
• photocatalyst and electrocatalyst for hydrogen energy
• nanomaterials/nanocomposite for energy harvesting

Title: Optimizing ZnFe2O4 Thin Films Sputtering Parameters for Highly Efficient Hydrogen Production via Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Process
Authors: Salh Alhammadi
Affiliation: Yeungnam University School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Gyeongbuk, Korea