Development of renewable energy methods and working towards a sustainable environment are two major challenges for humanity. The most promising solutions include solar energy conversion to fuels or electricity and heterogeneous photocatalysis (including photocatalytic water and gas treatment), which have been paid considerable attention over recent years. More importantly, advances in new materials, smart devices, and design and mechanistic studies have greatly assisted development of these technologies.

Original research articles and reviews are cordially invited for submission which illustrate these recent developments and stimulate new materials exploration, understanding underlying these photochemical processes, and development of strategies towards efficient solar devices. We are particularly interested in articles concerning advanced materials engineering, concepts on device design, and new insights into mechanisms. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Recent developments for solar H₂ production from water photolysis
• New concepts on CO₂ storage or conversion driven by solar energy
• Advances in the dye-sensitized solar cells
• Latest technologies for photocatalytic water and gas treatment
• Nanostructured materials fabrication and its application in the hybrid solar cells
• Mechanistic understanding underlying these photochemical processes
• Other studies related to solar energy conversion

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijp/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: