Quantum Materials for Energy Relevant Technologies

Energy-relevant technologies increasingly require materials that can transport and manipulate charge, spin, and heat with minimal loss, remain stable under high electric/magnetic fields and high-frequency operation, and enable ultra-efficient energy transmission, low-power electronics, efficient computation, and advanced energy storage. In this context, quantum materials including superconductors, topological materials, and other strongly correlated systems offer distinct advantages because they leverage quantum mechanical effects and emergent electronic states, such as near-lossless transport, protected conduction channels, and tunable collective excitations. In particular, when these behaviors are engineered at the nanoscale, additional control becomes possible through quantum confinement, excitonic and interfacial charge-transfer effects, and strong coupling between lattice, charge, and spin. This Research Topic aims to highlight how quantum-enabled phenomena in bulk materials and nanomaterials enable low-dissipation power transmission, energy-efficient electronics and memory, and how they can be engineered to deliver measurable advances in energy-device performance, spanning energy conversion and harvesting, next-generation photo/electrocatalysis and hydrogen technologies, electrochemical energy storage, thermoelectrics, emerging low-loss energy electronics, quantum sensing, and quantum and neuromorphic computing.This Research Topic welcomes contributions that establish clear structure–property–performance relationships, using controllable design factors such as phase structure, defects, dopants, strain, dimensionality, heterointerfaces, and nanoscale morphology with a strong focus on materials and device fabrication, and metrology. We particularly encourage operando/in situ validation, stability and degradation studies, scalable synthesis and integration strategies, and theory/modeling that accelerate translation towards reliable, fabricable platforms. Material systems of interest include graphene, van der Waals, quantum-confined nanostructures, superconductors, and topological insulators, alongside other emerging quantum materials, enabling efficient energy conversion, storage, and control. In view of this, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Development and characterization of 2D, van der Waals, and heterostructured quantum materials for energy applications• Quantum confinement, excitonic/interfacial phenomena, and their role in transport, charge/spin manipulation, and energy conversion• Novel device architectures exploiting low-loss quantum channels, spin/valley effects, and engineered defects or nanostructures• Applications in photovoltaics/optoelectronics, next-generation catalysis, hydrogen storage, batteries, supercapacitors, thermoelectrics, and quantum/neural hardware for efficient computing• Scalable synthesis, integration, and manufacturing routes, including operando/in situ metrology, multiscale modeling, and AI/ML-driven materials discovery• Studies on reliability, degradation, lifetime, and sustainability of quantum materials for long-term use in energy devicesThis Research Topic welcomes submissions in the following categories: Original Research, Review, Mini Review, Perspective, Methods, Technology and Code, FAIR² Data.Topic Editor Karthik Ramasamy holds shares in UbiQD, Inc. The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the Research Topic subject. Topic editors: Richard Alexander Taylor, Shyam Aravamudhan, Karthik Ramasamy Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79600/quantum-materials-for-energy-relevant-technologies