Surface Engineering for Energy Harvesting, Conversion, and Storage

Aims:

Energy production and storage represent some of the leading issues facing contemporary society. The production of highly efficient materials for energy applications, such as photovoltaics, hydrogen production/storage, energy harvesters, thermoelectrics, and others, keep pushing the field of protective and functional coatings to new horizons.

Motivated by the growing overlap between coating technology and energy fields, this Section of multifunctional Coatings for Energy Applications has been assembled. This Section aims to cover manuscripts combining rigorous coating technology development with novel applications in energy-related fields. We welcome contributions that provide clear improvements in designing, understanding, integrating, and developing energy production/storage coatings. Manuscripts dealing with organic or inorganic materials are also considered. Articles dealing with synthesis and characterization might be considered, as long as a relevant application in energy fields is clearly described. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Printable, tailored or nanostructured coatings for:
  • Hydrogen production/storage;
  • Photovoltaic materials (solar cell materials, solar absorbers, etc.);
  • Photocatalytic coatings;
  • Fuel cells/batteries;
  • Supercapacitors;
  • Electrochemically stable electrodes/coatings;
  • Catalytically active coatings;
  • Thermo/electrochromic coatings;
  • Thermoelectric materials;
  • Smart materials;
  • Wind, geothermal, and wave energy application.
• Theoretical studies on protective coatings in energy fields.
• Mechanical and tribological aspects of active coatings.
• Functionally graded composites/nanocomposites.