Advances in Materials for Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered Technologies

Dear Colleagues,

As the use of smart electronics becomes more prevalent and the adoption of Internet of Things based on widely distributed sensor nodes more widespread, there is a high demand for renewable distributed power, energy harvesting, and self-powered technologies based on photoelectric, triboelectric, piezoelectric, electromagnetic, pyroelectric effects, etc. The devices based on the technologies can convert varied ambient energy into electricity and useful signals. In the last decade, significant advancements in energy harvesting and self-powered technologies in terms of functional materials, working mechanisms, device structure, power management, etc., have promoted the achievement of increasing energy conversion efficiency and sensitivity for their practical applications. Among these, works on material innovations (i.e., the design, synthesis, incorporation, and modification of various functional materials, including 2D materials, ferroelectric materials, natural materials, porous materials, etc.) are among the most promising technological routes to further advance energy harvesting and self-powered technologies.

The scope of this Special Issue is to gather the most recent advances in material improvements for energy harvesting and self-powered technologies. We welcome all manuscripts with novel ideas in principles, developments, and applications in the field of energy harvesting and self-powered technologies on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Design, synthesis, and characterization of novel functional materials;
• Methods and tools to theoretically simulate materials in energy-harvesting devices;
• Physical/chemical modification of materials;
• Study on multifunctional materials for multimechanism energy harvesting and multiple parameter sensing;
• Development of auxiliary modules such as energy storage and power management units for an integrated self-powered system.

Dr. Jinkai Chen
Dr. Lin Shi
Guest Editors

Dr. Pengfei Zhao
Guest Editor Assistant

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. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2600 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.

• energy harvesting
• self-powered
• energy storage
• multifunctional materials
• theoretical simulations
• surface modification
• material synthesis and characterization