Nanostructured materials for the realization of electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices: Status and prospects

One of the greatest challenges for the modern world is the ever-increasing demand of energy, which may soon outstrip the amount of natural resources that can be obtained using currently known energy conversion and energy storage technologies such as solar cells, fuel cells, lithium ion batteries, and supercapacitors. It appears that the maximum output efficiencies of these devices have already reached the intrinsic limits of almost all electrocatalyst materials. Hence, it is a high time to think about new material architectures by controlling size, shape, and geometry, as well as composition that can potentially make a significant improvement in the performance of these electrochemical devices. Among several known electrocatalyst materials are nanomaterials and their composites due to their unique electrical, mechanical, physical, chemical, and structural characteristics. These materials have opened a whole new territory of possibilities in designing high performance energy storage and conversion devices. In this chapter, the authors review the recent progress in energy storage and conversion devices that utilize various nanomaterials and their composite materials and identify future directions in which the field is likely to develop.