Advanced Materials for Energy Harvesting
A Special Issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073) belonging to the section "D1: Advanced Energy Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 December 2026 | Viewed by 288
Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The growing proliferation of low-power electronics, wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Things (IoT) necessitates power sources that are either self-sustaining or require minimal maintenance. Traditional battery technologies often fall short due to limited lifespan, environmental concerns and replacement challenges. Energy harvesting technologies offer a compelling alternative by scavenging otherwise wasted energy from the environment. The performance and viability of these technologies—including thermoelectrics, piezoelectrics, triboelectrics and photovoltaics—are fundamentally governed by the materials at their core. Recent breakthroughs in nanomaterials, composites, organic semiconductors and tailored metamaterials have opened unprecedented avenues for improving energy-conversion efficiency and enabling new form factors.
This Special Issue invites original research and review articles on the frontier of Advanced Materials for Energy Harvesting. In an era demanding sustainable and decentralized power solutions, the development of novel materials is paramount for efficiently converting ambient energy—such as thermal, mechanical, solar and radio-frequency energy—into usable electricity. This issue aims to compile cutting-edge research that bridges material innovation with device engineering, focusing on enhancing efficiency, durability, scalability and application potential.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Material Development: Novel piezoelectric, triboelectric, thermoelectric and pyroelectric materials; high-performance photovoltaic materials (e.g., perovskites, organics); composites and hybrid materials.
- Nanomaterial Innovations: 1D/2D materials (e.g., nanowires, MXenes, graphene), quantum dots and nanostructured architectures for enhanced energy capture.
- Device Engineering and Integration: Design and fabrication of energy harvesters (e.g., nanogenerators, thermoelectric generators); flexible, stretchable and wearable device formats; power management and storage integration.
- Characterization and Theory: Advanced characterization of energy-conversion mechanisms; modeling and simulation of material properties and device performance.
- Applications: Materials and systems for powering IoT sensors, wearable electronics, structural health monitoring and remote/off-grid applications.
Prof. Dr. Liuxian Zhao
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- energy harvesting
- nanogenerators (triboelectric, piezoelectric)
- thermoelectric generators
- photovoltaics
- mechanical-energy harvesting
- thermal-energy harvesting
- RF-energy harvesting
- power management
- self-powered systems
- energy-conversion efficiency
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