Topic: Solar Energy Conversion and Storage

The global energy landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation, driven by the urgent need to mitigate climate change and ensure energy security by transitioning away from fossil fuels. Solar energy, as the most abundant renewable energy resource, presents a pivotal solution. However, solar energy is inherently intermittent and variable, which induces the significant challenge between energy generation and energy demand. The “Solar Energy Conversion and Storage” becomes highly critical. It is an integrated field focused not only on capturing solar energy but also on storing it efficiently for on-demand use, thereby enabling a continuous and dispatchable energy supply. The ultimate goal is to make solar energy a dominant, reliable, and base-load power source. Consequently, significant research interest has been directed toward versatile atomic-to-mesoscale materials for advanced solar energy conversion and storage systems. These integrated material systems establish new paradigms for electrochemical performance metrics, while providing fundamental insights into structure-property relationships across multiple length scales, ultimately accelerating the development of next-generation solar energy conversion and storage technologies.

This Special Issue aims to highlight progress at the intersection of materials development, electrochemical mechanisms, advanced characterization, and data-guided design. We welcome interdisciplinary studies that deepen understanding of structure–property relationships and explore materials design can be better aligned with device-level demands in solar energy conversion and storage systems.

Scope and Topics

This Special Issue invites original research, reviews, and perspectives in the broad domain of solar energy conversion and storage, with a focus on nanoscale material systems, electrolyte design, and structure–function correlations. Topics include, but are not limited to:

● Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs): materials design, stability enhancement, device architectures, and large-scale applications.

● Electrochemical Energy Storage: solar-driven charging of batteries and supercapacitors, novel electrode/electrolyte materials, and integrated energy storage systems.

● Photocatalytic Materials for Solar Fuel Generation: water splitting, CO₂ reduction, nitrogen fixation, and solar-to-chemical energy pathways.

● Photoluminescence Materials: design and application of light-emitting materials for solar devices, spectral management, and optoelectronic integration.

● Advanced Characterization and Mechanistic Understanding: In-situ and operando electrochemical characterization; Microscopy and spectroscopy of dynamic interfaces; Reaction kinetics and interfacial charge dynamics; Correlative studies linking structure to performance.

● Theoretical and Data-Driven Approaches: First-principles calculations and multiscale modeling; Machine learning for materials discovery and property prediction; High-throughput screening of electrode and electrolyte candidates; AI-assisted design of architectures and operating conditions.

● Scalability, Integration, and Long-Term Performance: Electrochemical stability and degradation mechanisms; Scalable fabrication and device-level engineering; Real-world testing environments and performance benchmarks; Sustainability and material criticality considerations.

Significance and Impact

This Special Issue explores the critical interrelationships among nanostructure design, electrochemical mechanisms, and device performance to promote cross-scale understanding through integrative research. By encouraging collaboration between theoretical modeling, synthetic strategies, advanced diagnostics, and device-level engineering, it aims to establish more coherent frameworks for solar energy conversion and storage systems. We believe these efforts will play a pivotal role in advancing scalable solar energy conversion and storage technologies with meaningful impact on future prosperous applications.

Solar energy conversion, electrochemical energy storage, advanced characterizations, materials design, electrolyte optimization, theoretical calculations