Introduction
Abstract
The rapid increase in population and economic growth brings a rise in energy demand, which still mainly relies on natural fossil fuels, such as petroleum, natural gases, coals, and oils, and accounts for over 70% of the total primary energy supply. In this book, multiple views from different angles are taken to present and discuss the up-to-date critical materials science and catalytic technologies for energy conversion. Four types of heavily-researched energy conversion processes/technologies, i.e. electrochemistry, photochemistry, photoelectrochemistry, and photovoltaics, are encompassed. For each energy conversion technology, different dimensional nanomaterials, i.e. zero-dimension, one-dimension, two-dimension, three-dimension, clusters, and single atoms, are included and evaluated based on their unique dimension-induced interior properties, and their merits vs. demerits in applications. Polymorphic phases of solid materials are discussed especially for the emerging 2D materials from the view of phase formation, control/tuning, interfacing, and impacts on functionalities.