Editorial for the Special Issue Energy Conversion and Storage Devices: Materials and Applications

A battery is a galvanic cell that is used as a source of electrical power for specific applications. Modern batteries exist in a multitude of forms to accommodate various applications, from tiny button batteries such as those that power wristwatches to the very large batteries used to supply backup energy to municipal power grids. Some batteries are designed for single-use applications and cannot be recharged (primary cells), while others are based on conveniently reversible cell reactions that...

In 1749, Benjamin Franklin coined the word battery for a series of capacitors connected to store energy. Capacitors store electric potential energy that can be released over a short time. This property means capacitors have a wide range of applications.
Capacitor-discharge ignition is a type of ignition system commonly found in small engines where the energy released from a capacitor ignites an induction coil that, in turn, fires the spark plug.
To calculate the energy stored in a capacitor of...

A parallel plate capacitor, when connected to a battery, develops a potential difference across its plates. This potential difference is key to the operation of the capacitor, as it determines how much electrical energy the capacitor can store.
By integrating the equation that relates voltage and current in a capacitor, one can derive an equation for the voltage across the capacitor at any given time. This equation is crucial in understanding and predicting the behavior of capacitors in...

Electrocyclic reactions are reversible reactions. They involve an intramolecular cyclization or ring-opening of a conjugated polyene. Shown below are two examples of electrocyclic reactions. In the first reaction, the formation of the cyclic product is favored. In contrast, in the second reaction, ring-opening is favored due to the high ring strain associated with cyclobutene formation.

When an archer pulls the string in a bow, he saves the work done in the form of elastic potential energy. When he releases the string, the potential energy is released as kinetic energy of the arrow. A capacitor works on the same principle in which the work done is saved as electric potential energy. The potential energy (UC) could be calculated by measuring the work done (W) to charge the capacitor.

If a magnetic field is sustained, there must be a current in a closed circuit or loop, implying some energy has been spent in creating the field. If this energy is not dissipated via the circuit's resistance, it is stored in the field.
Take an ideal inductor with zero resistance. Although it's practically impossible, assume that the coil's resistance is so small that it is practically negligible. The loss of the field's energy to dissipate thermal energy (or heat) is thus...