Metal oxide nanostructures and thin films for sustainable energy applications

Abstract

Over the last five decades, rapid industrialization has led to human behavioral changes consuming high energy. The prediction shows that the global energy demand in 2050 will be 30 TW, which is expected to upsurge further to 46 TW by 2100.[1] The increased energy consumption will support economic development; however, it will give rise to greenhouse gas emissions and other issues, which the scientific and industrial community should focus on for controlling environmental pollution, global warming, and other allied problems. Therefore, various approaches are adopted toward sustainability with many arguments and/or agreements, but the balance between energy production, consumption, and carbon emission is the only promising way for a safe, cleaner, and sustainable future. With ever-increasing energy demand, conventional energy sources such as coal, oil, natural gas, etc., are not sustainable to reach the expectations. Therefore, renewable and sustainable energy sources need to be extensively inspected.[2] Though renewable energy is one of the prime solutions which scientists and industry are predominantly exploring, harnessing efficiencies beyond a certain limit has been critical until now. Even after knowing it, the scientific community is putting endless efforts into either developing new technologies or updating the existing ones to expand the horizons for further improvement in efficiency. Overall, excellent renewable energy harnessing technologies can administer future massive energy demand.