ABSTRACT
Energy demand and the environmental degradation are the most exigent issues in the 21st century. The concern is due to the high dependence on fossil fuels as a form of energy generation. Renewable energy sources available in our environment, such as thermal, wind, solar and mechanical, can be transformed into electricity by energy harvesters. Based on the nature of the input energy source, the fabrication of energy harvesters required specific materials which can efficiently search the ambient energy. In this regard, nanostructured based ceramic materials (oxides, carbides and glasses) have received major attention of the scientific community in the field of energy harvesting applications. These applications have been found to be strongly dependent on the active surface area and interfaces. The nanostructured oxide ceramic based hybrids having high porosity, large specific surface area, favorable transport properties, modified physical properties, and confinement effects play an important role in energy harvesting applications.
By keeping in view all the mentioned properties, the present chapter describes the nanostructured oxide based ceramic materials for light and mechanical energy harvesting applications, such as lithium ion batteries, supercapacitors, solar and fuel cells, sensors, optoelectronic devices, hydrogen storage systems and piezoelectric nanogenerators.
