Bio-Based Flexible Materials for Wearable Energy Storage and Electrocatalytic Conversion Devices

Wearable and flexible energy technologies require materials that combine mechanical adaptability, long-term durability, electrochemical performance, and sustainable production. Bio-based materials derived from cellulose, chitosan, lignin, and other abundant biomass feedstocks offer a promising platform because of their renewability, low density, tunable chemistry, and compatibility with low-impact manufacturing. Recent advances in nanostructuring, interface engineering, carbonization, and hybrid material design have improved their electrical conductivity, catalytic activity, and mechanical robustness, enabling applications in flexible electrodes, stretchable devices, and electrocatalytic systems.

Nevertheless, structure–property relationships remain insufficiently understood, while charge transport, interfacial degradation, and performance loss under bending, humidity, and repeated operation continue to limit practical deployment. Although metal-free and heteroatom-doped biomass-derived carbons have shown considerable promise for oxygen reduction, oxygen evolution, and hydrogen evolution reactions, further work is needed to establish reproducible synthesis–performance correlations and demonstrate durability under realistic conditions.

This Research Topic aims to advance the design, understanding, and application of bio-based and biomass-derived materials for flexible energy storage and electrocatalytic conversion. It will highlight strategies for controlling composition, porosity, morphology, surface chemistry, and interfaces to improve conductivity, catalytic activity, energy-storage performance, mechanical stability, and operational lifetime. Particular emphasis will be placed on flexible, stretchable, and all-solid-state architectures; metal-free and heteroatom-doped electrocatalysts; green and low-waste synthesis; and scalable fabrication methods. Contributions may address the mechanisms governing charge and ion transport, catalytic reaction pathways, electrode–electrolyte interactions, and degradation during mechanical deformation and extended cycling. Studies that evaluate sustainability, reproducibility, and practical manufacturing requirements alongside device performance are equally encouraged.

This Research Topic will cover the synthesis, modification, characterization, integration, and realistic performance evaluation of biomass-derived materials, with emphasis on sustainable processing and scalable device fabrication. We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, and Perspectives addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
- Flexible, stretchable, and wearable electrodes for supercapacitors and batteries, including all-solid-state and mechanically adaptable device architectures
- Bio-derived electrocatalysts for ORR, OER, HER, and related electrochemical reactions, including metal-free and heteroatom-doped carbons from biomass
- Synthesis and modification of carbon, polymer, hydrogel, and hybrid materials from biomass precursors
- Green, low-waste, and scalable synthesis and fabrication strategies
- Interface engineering and charge-transfer mechanisms in bio-based electrochemical systems, including advanced structural, spectroscopic, electrochemical, and operando characterization
- Cycling stability, flexibility, durability, and degradation under realistic wearable operating conditions
- Sustainability assessment, recyclability, life-cycle considerations, and scale-up potential

Studies on biomass-derived materials that do not include electrochemical device or catalytic performance data fall outside the scope of this Research Topic.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: Biomass-derived materials, Bio-based materials, Flexible energy storage, Wearable energy devices, Biomass-derived carbon, Electrocatalysis, Metal-free electrocatalysts, Supercapacitors and batteries

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.