The transition to sustainable and renewable energy is considered one of the great challenges of our time. Indeed, the energy transition is crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, mitigating climate change and securing energy resources. Obviously, advanced materials play a key role in the design, implementation and realisation of the energy transition. Therefore, much effort has been devoted to the synthesis and characterisation of nanostructured materials for energy applications (i.e. storage and generation) in recent decades. Indeed, nanomaterials have been consolidated as promising tools, offering unique and significant chemical and physical perspectives that could lead to dramatic improvements in energy applications.

In this article collection, we aim to focus on three main, often interconnected themes that are critical to overcoming the challenges of the energy transition:

1. Synthesis: Highlighting scalable methods to create nanomaterials with tailored properties, giving particular emphasis to green synthesis approaches and the recovery of waste materials.

2. Characterization: Showcasing advances in techniques that provide insights into the structural, electronic, and catalytic properties of nanomaterials, with an emphasis on in situ and operando methods, as well as new approaches to data analysis involving the use of AI and big data.

3. Applications: Examining innovative uses of nanomaterials in energy storage, hydrogen production, carbon capture, and solar energy technologies.

Having a comprehensive overview of these three aspects can result in a solid basis needed to create nanomaterials that can meet this important challenge engaging the world in the coming years. For these reasons, we invite researchers from all over the world to contribute to this article collection and make their work visible through the virtual pages of Discover Nano journal.

Keywords:Li-ion batteries, electrochemical biosensors, nanomaterials, materials characterization, energy materials, green chemistry.