Advances in Solar-Driven Catalytic Materials for Sustainable Fuels
A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials for Energy Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 34
Special Issue Editors
Interests: environmental materials; environmental chemistry; inorganic chemistry; surface chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: nanoparticle synthesis; materials characterization; photocatalysis; environmental remediation; hydrogen generation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: material modification; photocatalysis; materials characterization; renewable energy; waste utilization
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Solar-driven catalytic materials offer transformative solutions to global energy and environmental challenges. By turning abundant sunlight into electricity, fuels, and valuable chemicals, these materials not only reduce carbon emissions but also drive innovation in clean energy, making sustainability more achievable for future generations. Therefore, the development of solar-driven catalytic materials plays a key role in addressing global challenges like climate change, energy security, and environmental protection.
This special issue on ‘Advances in Solar-Driven Catalytic Materials for Sustainable Fuels’ focuses on materials engineered to harness sunlight for catalytic processes that directly address global energy and climate challenges. Specifically, it targets research enabling the conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels via photocatalytic, electrocatalytic, and photoelectrochemical pathways for hydrogen generation and CO2 reduction. These processes are essential for creating carbon-neutral energy cycles, where materials driven by solar energy enable the selective conversion of water and CO2 into fuels such as hydrogen, hydrocarbons, and other valuable chemicals. The scope emphasizes innovations in material design, mechanistic understanding, and performance optimization under solar irradiation, with a strong focus on practical viability.
Key priorities include advancing catalyst efficiency, selectivity, and durability under operational conditions while addressing scalability and cost-effectiveness. Topics of interest span novel semiconductors, metal-free photocatalysts, hybrid organic-inorganic frameworks, nanostructured electrodes, and earth-abundant electrocatalysts tailored for solar fuel production. Investigations into charge separation dynamics, interfacial reaction mechanisms, and strategies to enhance light absorption or mitigate recombination losses are central to this special issue.
Researchers are encouraged to submit articles that push the boundaries of catalytic materials for solar-powered fuel production to tackle existing challenges in efficiency and stability, with the goal of speeding up the shift to scalable and sustainable energy systems.
Prof. Dr. Keiko Sasaki
Guest Editor
Dr. Sulakshana Shenoy
Dr. Jirawat Trakulmututa
Dr. Wenan Cai
Guest Editor Assistants
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- solar-driven catalytic materials
- nanostructured photocatalysts
- scalable solar fuel production
- photocatalytic hydrogen generation
- photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction
- charge separation dynamics
- CO2 valorization
- stable semiconductor interfaces
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