Welcome to ISNARE - 2013

Energy crisis is one of the most serious issues in the world. The conventional fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal contain carbon, pollute the environment, contribute to global warming and have limited supply. To address this problem, there is a great deal of interest currently to develop new technologies for energy conversion (e.g., solar cells and fuel cells) and energy storage (e.g., supercapacitors and batteries). Because the performance of these devices depends strongly on the materials used, it is vital to design new materials with desired properties. Nanomaterials are among the most promising materials. Because of their reduced size, low coordination, low dimensionality, and large surface to volume ratio, they possess unique properties that are very different from their bulk counterparts. Moreover, the ability to control the size, shape and composition of nanostructures has provided scientists the freedom to design novel materials with tailored features for energy application. The focus of this symposium is on nanostructures and their applications in renewable energy.