Symposium D, 'Energy Critical Materials' and Symposium G, 'Materials as Tools for Sustainability', were held on November 25-30 at the 2012 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. Many technologies that currently impart significant benefits to our society cannot continue indefinitely without depleting or despoiling key resources, and more sustainable paths must be sought. Sustainable development that raises global standards of living and promotes economic growth calls for materials science to develop advanced technologies and strategies to use our finite material and energy resources more efficiently. This volume presents a compilation of emerging research on sustainable development in the context of product manufacturing, catalysis, transportation, and energy-critical materials. Each paper provides a glimpse of exciting recent developments, including: critical elements for next-generation batteries, phase change materials for energy efficient buildings, weathering resistant materials, 3-D printing technologies, flame retardants with reduced toxicity, and stimulating life-cycle analysis examples in various applications.

This book combines the proceedings of Symposium EE, Solid-State Ionics, and Symposium FF, Materials for Fuel Cells and Fuel Processors, both from the 2002 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston. Current developments in solid-state ionics, and advances in the domains of energy storage and conversion and environmental monitoring, are featured. The largest clusters of papers are devoted to lithium batteries and fuel cell technology. It reflects the dominating relevance of these applications for fostering the modern telecommunications and information society and the development of environmentally friendly electric transportation and energy transformation systems, replacing traditional combustion technology. Topics include: theory/inorganic ion conductors; oxide electroceramics for separation membranes and gas sensors; cathode materials for lithium batteries; anode materials for lithium batteries and polymer electrolytes; proton exchange membrane fuel cells; and solid oxide fuel cells.

Advanced high-performance materials enabling precise control of chemical change, characterization tools probing the ultrafast and the ultra small, and new understanding based on advanced theory and simulation are the agents for moving beyond incremental improvements and creating a truly secure and sustainable energy future. This symposium proceedings volume focuses on the synthesis, processing, characterization, and modelling of nanostructured materials and their potential use as "nanoscale building blocks" for photon, phonon and chemical transduction to electrical signal and vice versa for energy management. Nanoscale structures can dramatically alter surface reaction rates and electrical transport, resulting in improvements in the processes and transduction mechanisms concerning energy storage, conversion, and generation.