New Trends in Nanoscale Materials Applied to Photovoltaic Research
A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanophotonics Materials and Devices".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 July 2026 | Viewed by 40
Special Issue Editors
Interests: electrochemical technologies for energy harvesting and storage; supercapacitors; third-generation photovoltaic cells and their direct integration with photovoltaic technologies; photo-capacitors; blue energy; ion exchange membranes; two-dimensional nanomaterials; nanostructured metal oxides for electrochemical devices; polymer electrolytes;
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: electrochemical technologies for energy harvesting and storage; third-generation photovoltaic cells; photovoltaic devices under non-standard illumination conditions; supercapacitors and their direct integration with photovoltaic technologies; photo-capacitors; nanostructured materials for electrochemical devices; polymer electrolytes
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nanoscale innovations have profoundly reshaped photovoltaic technologies, enabling unprecedented control over performance, stability, and fabrication. Early advancements in silicon nanostructures improved light trapping and charge transport, while quantum dots introduced tunable bandgaps. Carbon nanomaterials—including fullerenes, nanotubes, and graphene—revolutionized organic photovoltaics by enhancing transport and flexibility. More recently, perovskite nanocrystals, 2D materials, and nanostructured metal oxides have improved interface engineering, boosting the indoor and outdoor performance of energy-autonomous systems.
The construction of these devices requires advanced fabrication techniques such as vapor deposition (PVD, CVD), atomic layer deposition, electrodeposition, sputtering, and laser processing. These methods provide precise nanoscale control over composition and interfaces, which is crucial for optimizing charge transport and stability. Furthermore, they are essential for scalable, cost-effective manufacturing and integrating thin-film devices onto diverse substrates.
Cutting-edge research in this domain is advancing innovative solutions to overcome charge recombination, optimize light harvesting under diverse spectral conditions, improve device durability, and scale up environmentally sustainable fabrication processes. Recent investigations into nanoscale materials and thin-film processing have identified new mechanisms that enable high-efficiency energy conversion, flexible and integrated photovoltaic systems, and sustainable pathways for next-generation photovoltaic technologies.
The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight innovative approaches that leverage nanoscale materials and advanced fabrication techniques to address key challenges in photovoltaic research. This is a joint Special Issue between Nanomaterials and Micromachines, offering authors the flexibility to publish in the journal that best matches their research focus—Nanomaterials for material synthesis, characterization, and fundamental properties, or Micromachines for device fabrication, manufacturing processes, and system integration. All submissions will be included in the same Special Issue collection and evaluated under unified thematic criteria.
For this Special Issue, we are soliciting original research papers and comprehensive reviews that contribute to the advancement of nanoscale materials in photovoltaic devices and related light-to-energy systems. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
- Novel device architectures and innovative approaches to photovoltaic cells enabled by nanomaterials.
- Photovoltaic performance optimization through nanostructuring and interface engineering.
- Advanced thin-film deposition and fabrication techniques (PVD, CVD, ALD, sputtering, electrodeposition, laser processing) for nanomaterial-based photovoltaics.
- Device stability and longevity enhancement using nanoscale materials and optimized fabrication protocols.
- Indoor photovoltaic performance and optimization for artificial light conditions.
- Device integration strategies for building-integrated, flexible, and energy-autonomous photovoltaic systems.
- Sustainable and scalable fabrication routes and life-cycle, environmental, and sustainability assessments of nanomaterial-enabled photovoltaic technologies.
- Innovative nanomaterial-based devices for light-driven energy generation, transfer, and storage.
You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Micromachines.
Dr. Andrea Lamberti
Guest Editor
Dr. Roberto Speranza
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Nanomaterials 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 2400 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
- nanoscale materials
- nanostructured interfaces
- photovoltaic performances
- device stability
- sustainability
- indoor photovoltaic
- device integration
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