Trends and Perspectives in Energy Research

The question on how to meet our steadfastly growing energy demand has become an overarching topic across various scientific disciplines, including solid-state physics, chemistry, and engineering. At the heart of current efforts lies the challenge to efficiently interconvert, store, transport, and finally utilise different forms of energy, each of these steps typically involving highly complex and interwoven physical and chemical processes. Existing energy devices, such as solar cells or fuel cells, certainly need to be optimised to fully harvest their potential. At the same time, one wonders whether fundamentally new approaches might be necessary to create the high-efficiency devices required for the sustainable development of our society.

The present Special Issue Trends and Perspectives in Energy Research provides a vivid glimpse on some of the ongoing activities in this fairly active and diverse field, with the hope to inspire further research:

1. Doll et al. discuss the possibility to assess the quality of photovoltaic panels even in the absence of well-controlled laboratory conditions by utilising reference spots in the module area for electroluminescence imaging;

2. Becker and Wark show how to modify the surface morphology of absorber layers, as a step towards increased reproducibility and performance of planar organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells;

3. Dyakonov et al. discuss an innovative solvent-engineering method for processing high-quality photovaltaic perovskite films;

4. Taskesen et al. present their growth procedure for kesterite solar cells and outline a new optimisation strategy for kesterite absorber layers;

5. Lattyak et al. present simulations suggesting the efficient use of ultrathin transition metal dichalcogenides for solar windows;

6. Ben-Abdallah and Biehs review basic ideas and recent progress in the field of thermophotovoltaics, aiming at harvesting the high evanescent energy density close to the surface of a hot body;

7. Al-Shamery et al. investigate in detail the role which defects on TiO₂ surfaces play for catalysis;

8. Kolny-Olesiak reviews solution-based approaches to synthesising ternary Fe, Co, and Ni phosphide nanoparticles, which possess high potential for application as catalysts in electrochemical water splitting, energy storage, and magnetic refrigeration;

9. De Sio, Nguyen, and Lienau discuss model calculations addressing the role of molecular vibrations for long-lived quantum coherences, as recently observed in photoinduced charge transfer reactions.

Besides highlighting various facets of topical research, these contributions have one further thing in common: they are all related, in one way or another, to the many activities of Prof. Jürgen Parisi, a long-time member of the Editorial Board of Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A, who is celebrating his 68th birthday this August. Quite in the spirit of a traditional “Festschrift,” this Special Issue also constitutes a token of appreciation brought forward by colleagues and friends – Happy birthday, Jürgen!