Condensed Matter in Energy, Environment, and Beyond

One of the most important themes of today’s scientific research is the design and development of energetic and environmental materials, as well as the understanding of their physics and chemistry. Condensed matters, such as organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites, superionic conductors, metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, black phosphorus, penta-graphene, and mechanoluminescent materials, have attracted tremendous interest. In this special issue, we intend to cover recent theoretical and experimental progress in the condensed matter materials that have applications related to energy and environment, but also with a much broader touch on other important functionality. The focus will be on the physical properties of novel condensed matter materials in terms of their applications, for example, in solar cells, rechargeable batteries based on metal ions, green-house gas sequestration and conversion, gas sensory and separation, photovoltaics, photoluminescence, and mechanical sensors. The purpose of this special issue is to present the recent progress in these exciting fields. A brief summary of all accepted papers is provided below.