The need of sustainable exploitation of natural resources and correct energy management are nowadays pressing realities. Thus, pursuing new materials is of great relevance, and metal-oxides appear as tempting options. These materials have interesting properties, and their application and performance depend directly on their nature, size, shape, surface area, etc. They can be employed in different kinds of applications, in fact titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, tungsten oxides and so on, have been proved to act efficiently as photo-catalysts. The photodegradation of pollutants is attractive due to its environmentally friendly aspect, simplicity and efficiency, reducing the final cost of contaminant removal treatments, for example in waste water cleaning processes. Moreover, the abatement of polluting gases or their photoreduction for fuel generation using this sort of materials is also interesting, and in the case of carbon dioxide, it can have a global impact in climate change mitigation, contributing to the circular CO2 economy. Materials characterization is central to the entire spectrum from pushing forward materials research and development to upscaling, manufacturing and product performance. In order to fully exploit the potential applications of these materials, efforts in material modeling must be undertaken to benefit from synergies between modelling and characterization. The symposium aims to give an overview on recent advances of metal-oxide nanostructured materials that can contribute to energy production and saving, simultaneously maximizing the exploitation of our natural resources while protecting the environment.
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