Topic: Microstructural Engineering of Carbon-Based and Electrode Materials for Energy Storage

The rapid growth of portable electronics, electric vehicles, grid-scale storage, and renewable energy systems has created an urgent demand for high-performance, durable, safe, and cost-effective energy storage technologies. Carbon-based materials and advanced electrode materials play a central role in this development because their electrochemical behavior is strongly governed by microstructural features, including crystallinity, porosity, defects, heteroatom doping, interfacial chemistry, particle morphology, and hierarchical architecture. Through rational microstructural engineering, it is possible to regulate ion/electron transport, enhance active-site accessibility, improve structural stability during cycling, and overcome persistent limitations such as sluggish kinetics, low energy density, poor rate capability, and capacity decay. Recent advances in porous carbons, graphene-based materials, carbon nanotubes, hard and soft carbons, biomass-derived carbons, and carbon-supported composites have opened new opportunities for designing next-generation electrodes for batteries, supercapacitors, and emerging hybrid energy storage systems.

This Special Topic aims to highlight recent breakthroughs and comprehensive insights into the microstructural design, controlled preparation, advanced characterization, and energy storage applications of carbon-based and electrode materials. We invite contributions that address the fundamental relationships among synthesis strategy, microstructure evolution, interfacial behavior, and electrochemical performance. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to: defect and heteroatom engineering of carbon materials; pore-structure regulation and hierarchical architecture design; interface and surface chemistry modulation; carbonaceous anodes for lithium-, sodium-, potassium-, and multivalent-ion batteries; electrode materials for sodium-ion, zinc-ion, lithium–sulfur, metal–air, and solid-state batteries; pseudocapacitive and capacitive materials for supercapacitors; carbon-supported metal oxides, sulfides, phosphides, nitrides, carbides, and alloy-type materials; in-situ/operando characterization of structural evolution and reaction mechanisms; and theoretical modeling, machine learning, or data-driven approaches for understanding and optimizing microstructure–performance relationships.

By curating interdisciplinary studies spanning materials synthesis, microstructural characterization, electrochemical evaluation, and mechanism-oriented modeling, this Special Topic seeks to provide a timely overview of the current state and future direction of carbon-based and electrode materials for energy storage. We particularly encourage works that bridge fundamental microstructural understanding with practical requirements, including high mass loading, long-cycle stability, fast-charging capability, scalable preparation, environmental sustainability, and compatibility with realistic device configurations. The scope covers diverse energy storage systems and material forms, including but not limited to nanostructured carbons, porous frameworks, composite electrodes, free-standing films, flexible electrodes, binder-free architectures, and multifunctional electrode interfaces.

Both RESEARCH and REVIEW articles are welcome.