Materials as a player in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies: Preface to the special issue section

The 5th Global Conference on Materials Science and Engineering was held from 11/8-11/2016, at Tunghai University, aiming to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and scholars to exchange and share their experience and research results on all aspects of Materials Science and Engineering, and to discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted. The conference highlights that, in the hydrogen and fuel cell field, the breakthrough may take place when new functional materials are developed in parallel to technological developments. Among all types of fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are known for their high energy conversion efficiency, low emission, and fuel flexibility that have attracted continuously worldwide R&D. In particular, lowering the SOFC operating temperature has become the recent trend of SOFC research.