Advanced Catalytic Materials in Energy and Environment

Dear Colleagues,

Advanced catalytic materials are essential to modern energy and environmental technologies, driving key reactions such as water splitting, CO₂ reduction, N₂ fixation, and pollutant degradation. Recent breakthroughs have demonstrated that their catalytic performance is governed not only via chemical composition but also by their crystalline features, including facet orientation, defect engineering, strain, and phase purity, making crystallographic investigation indispensable for rational design.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, short communications, and review papers that connect crystal–structure characterization with catalytic function.  Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Single-crystal or powder X-ray structural analysis of new heterogeneous catalysts;
• Crystal-facet-, defect-, or strain-dependent activity/selectivity in energy reactions (ORR, OER, HER, CO₂RR, NRR, etc.);
• In situ/operando crystallographic studies capturing structural evolution under catalytic conditions;
• Crystalline perovskites, MOFs, COFs, spinels, and layered double hydroxides for photocatalysis and electrocatalysis;
• Green synthesis, crystal growth mechanisms, and morphological control of environmental catalysts;
• Structure–property correlations revealed via combined XRD, TEM, SAED, and PDF analyses;
• Single-atom catalysts on energy-related reactions, their preparation method, characterization, and performance evaluation.

Dr. Wanliang Yang
Guest Editor

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.