Author Archive

10th CIRP Conference on Photonic Technologies – LANE 2018

10th CIRP Conference on Photonic Technologies  – LANE 2018 takes place 3 – 6 September 2018 in Fürth, Germany.

The meeting offers a platform for an international exchange of ideas, opinions, perspectives, results and solutions concerning photonic technologies. In order to give a detailed overview, the conference aims not only at scientific contributions, but integrates the industrial perspective and their relevance for application, as well.

Especially recent developments in the field of:

Laser Material Processing:

  • Beam sources & components
  • Laser beam welding, brazing & soldering
  • Laser beam cutting & drilling
  • Surface treatment & forming
  • Laser assisted processes

including

  • Experimental results
  • Simulation & modelling
  • Sensing & control

and

Emerging Technologies:

  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Precision processing with ultrashort laser pulses
  • Fast laser beam manipulation
  • E-Mobility/Batteries

Materials Horizons is delighted to support LANE 2018 with two prizes for the best talks.

Register before 4 June 2018 for early bird rates, or 9 August 2018 for standard rates.

Visit the conference website for more information: https://www.lane-conference.org/

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Metamaterials’2018

The 12th International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena – Metamaterials’2018, will comprise a 4-day Conference (27–30 August), and a 2-day Doctoral School (31 August–1 September).

Organized by the METAMORPHOSE VI AISBL (www.metamorphose-vi.org) and hosted by Aalto University (Espoo, Finland), this Congress follows the success of Metamaterials 2007-2017 and continues the traditions of the highly successful series of International Conferences on Complex Media and Metamaterials (Bianisotropics) and Rome International Workshops on Metamaterials and Special Materials for Electromagnetic Applications and Telecommunications.

The Congress will provide a unique topical forum to share the latest results of the metamaterials research in Europe and worldwide and bring together the engineering, physics, applied mathematics and material science communities working on artificial materials and their applications from microwaves to optical frequencies, as well as in acoustics, mechanics, hydrodynamics and thermodynamics.

 

Plenary Speakers include:

  • Nader EnghetaUniversity of Pennsylvania – Metamaterials for Informatics.
  • Martin van HeckeLeiden University/AMOLF – Complex Mechanical Metamaterials.
  • Stefano Maci, University of Siena – Metasurface Design.
  • Arno Rauschenbeutel, Technische Universität Wien – Chiral Quantum Nanophotonics.

 

Materials Horizons and Journal of Materials Chemistry C are delighted to support Metamaterials’2018 with student prizes.

Register before 25 June 2018 for early-bird registration rates. Visit the conference website for more information.

Follow Metamaterials’2018 on social media: TwitterFacebook

 

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2018 International Conference of Young Researchers on Advanced Materials

Materials Horizons and Journal of Materials Chemistry AB and are pleased to support the 2018 International Conference of Young Researchers on Advanced Materials (ICYRAM2018).

This conference aims to give researchers from around the world the opportunity to engage and network with peers, industry and friends, in the field of advanced materials.  Specifically ICYRAM2018 gives a platform for researchers up to 15 years post-PhD to present their R&D.  From 4 – 5 November 2018, Adelaide in South Australia will be the global focus for the scientific presentations, conversations, and chance meetings that will set forth the future discoveries and innovations to drive society forward. This 4th edition of ICYRAM, will build on the original mission by providing a fair and equitable event for all early stage researcher’s to meet, discuss and network in a safe and welcoming environment.  Whether they be specialised materials researchers or those who utilise and apply materials to their R&D – ICYRAM2018 welcomes all.

Important Dates!

  • 30th March 2018 – Abstract submission deadline
  • 30th June 2018 – Early bird registration closure

For more information and how to submit an abstract please visit the conference website

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Some of the most popular 2017 articles in Materials Horizons

We are delighted to share with you some of the most popular articles that were published in Materials Horizons in 2017.

Last year our Materials Horizons community published a larger number of articles of exceptional significance than ever before. We hope you enjoy reading this selection of some of the most highly cited* and most frequently downloaded articles from 2017.


Focus

Thermoresponsive polymers with lower critical solution temperature: from fundamental aspects and measuring techniques to recommended turbidimetry conditions
Qilu Zhang, Christine Weber, Ulrich S. Schubert and Richard Hoogenboom

Review

Metal organic framework based catalysts for CO2 conversion
James W. Maina, Cristina Pozo-Gonzalo, Lingxue Kong, Jürg Schütz, Matthew Hill and Ludovic F. Dumée

Heteroatom-doped graphene as electrocatalysts for air cathodes
Huijuan Cui, Zhen Zhou and Dianzeng Jia

Atomic layer deposition for nanomaterial synthesis and functionalization in energy technology
Xiangbo Meng, Xinwei Wang, Dongsheng Geng, Cagla Ozgit-Akgun, Nathanaelle Schneider and Jeffrey W. Elam

Metal-organic frameworks: a novel host platform for enzymatic catalysis and detection
Effrosyni Gkaniatsou, Clémence Sicard, Rémy Ricoux, Jean-Pierre Mahy, Nathalie Steunou and Christian Serre

Communication

Searching for promising new perovskite-based photovoltaic absorbers: the importance of electronic dimensionality
Zewen Xiao, Weiwei Meng, Jianbo Wang, David B. Mitzi and Yanfa Yan

Quaternisation-polymerized N-type polyelectrolytes: synthesis, characterisation and application in high-performance polymer solar cells
Zhicheng Hu, Rongguo Xu, Sheng Dong, Kai Lin, Jinju Liu, Fei Huang and Yong Cao

Functional conductive nanomaterials via polymerisation in nano-channels: PEDOT in a MOF
Tiesheng Wang, Meisam Farajollahi, Sebastian Henke, Tongtong Zhu, Sneha R. Bajpe, Shijing Sun, Jonathan S. Barnard, June Sang Lee, John D. W. Madden, Anthony K. Cheetham and Stoyan K. Smoukov

Efficient triplet–triplet annihilation upconversion in binary crystalline solids fabricated via solution casting and operated in air
Kenji Kamada, Yusuke Sakagami, Toshiko Mizokuro, Yutaka Fujiwara, Kenji Kobayashi, Kaishi Narushima, Shuzo Hirata and Martin Vacha

Programming 2D/3D shape-shifting with hobbyist 3D printers
Teunis van Manen, Shahram Janbaz and Amir A. Zadpoor


 

Check out our most recent articles from 2018…

 

At Materials Horizons, our reviewing standards are set extremely high to ensure we only publish first reports of new concepts across the breadth of materials research. Our impact factor of 10.706** is testament to the exceptionally significant work of our community.

Contact us: materialshorizons-rsc@rsc.org

Follow us: Homepage | Twitter | Facebook | Blog | E-alerts | RSS

 

 

*Web of Science (February 2018) © Clarivate Analytics.
**2016 Journal Citation Reports (June 2017) © Clarivate Analytics.

 

 

 

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Solar-Driven Nitrogen Fixation to Ammonia: Lighting the Way toward Green Chemistry

Is it feasible to convert nitrogen to ammonia using water and light?

With international collaboration, scientists from China and Singapore have looked into the aspect of the state-of-the-art engineering of photocatalysts for the nitrogen (N2) fixation toward understanding the ammonia (NH3) synthesis. The work was recently reported by Dr. Wee-Jun Ong and co-workers in Materials Horizons, which is featured on the Inside Front Cover in Volume 5, Issue 1 in 2018.

(a) An overview of the N2 cycle and circulation of N2 in various forms. (b) Diagram of the state-of-the-art milestone in the development of photocatalysts for N2 fixation.  Images adapted from Chen et al., Mater. Horiz., 2018, Advance Article with permission from The Royal Society of Chemistry. 

N2 is one of the most abundant gases on the Earth, comprising 78% in our atmosphere. Nonetheless, N2 in the gaseous state cannot be effectively utilized by organisms. Therefore, N2 must be “fixed” to make it valuable by breaking the strong NN triple bonds to transform it into a form that can be consumed by plants, animals and human beings. Hitherto, two typical methods to realize the fixation of N2 are: (1) a natural and bacterial process, and (2) the Haber-Bosch process in industry. For the last 100 years, the N2 conversion has led to the commercial fertilizer production and sustained the food intake supply for the worldwide population. However, the Haber-Bosch process consumes high pressures and temperatures, hence demanding a huge quantity (~2%) of the fossil fuel source. Thus, it is envisaged that the alternative process, which utilizes nanomaterials to absorb photon to mimic the natural photosynthesis in green leaves, can act as a paradigm shift for fixing nitrogen.

In this Review, the photo(electro)catalysts are classified based on the chemical compositions ranging from metal oxide to metal sulfide, bismuth oxyhalides, carbonaceous nanomaterials and other potential materials. The significance and relationship between the modification (e.g. nanoarchitecture design, crystal facet engineering, doping, and heterostructuring) and influences on the photo(electro)chemical activity of the catalysts are highlighted. Last but not least, to divert from the present laboratory-scale level to industrial applications, additional thoughts must be devoted to translating from academic research to practicality. How to amplify the yield of developed catalysts while preserving the intrinsic structures for the commercialization of “ammonia photosynthesis” is of universal challenge.

 

Read the full article here:
Xingzhu Chen, Neng Li,* Zhouzhou Kong, Wee-Jun Ong* and Xiujian Zhao
DOI: 10.1039/C7MH00557A

 

Wee-Jun Ong is a member of the Community Board for Materials Horizons. Currently, he works as a Staff Scientist in the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) at Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. His research interests focus on photocatalytic, photoelectrochemical and electrochemical H2O splitting, CO2 reduction, N2 fixation and H2O2 production for energy conversion and storage via experimental and density functional theory (DFT) studies. At present, he also serves as the Associate Editor of Frontiers in Chemistry and Frontiers in Materials, and an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports, Nanotechnology and Nano Futures. Check out his personal research website here.

 

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Materials Horizons Symposium: Electronic & Photonic Materials 2017

We had a great time in Japan in November for the Materials Horizons Symposium on Electronic & Photonic Materials!

Accompanied by Dr Simon Neil (Materials Horizons, Managing Editor) and Hiromitsu Urakami (RSC Manager, Japan), a great line-up of speakers visited Kyoto University and the National Institute for Materials Science to showcase a wide variety of cutting-edge work in and around the areas of electronic and photonic materials. We were delighted to hear some fantastic talks from Professor Yasuhiko Arakawa, Professor Lay-Lay Chua, Professor Maria Antonietta Loi, Materials Horizons Founding Chair Professor Seth Marder, and many more!

This event was also supported by Division of Molecular Electronics and Bioelectronics – The Japan Society of Applied Physics, The Japanese Photochemistry Association, Research Group on Electrical and Electronic Properties of Polymer and Organics – The Japan Society for Polymer Science.

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Congratulations to prize winners from NGSE 2017

We are delighted to congratulate the poster prize winners from 4th International Congress on Next Generation Solar Energy, which took place 4 – 7 December 2017 in Cali, Columbia.

 

The meeting was a great success and discussed recent developments in advanced photovoltaics including special sessions on perovskites, organics and hybrids. The applied aspects of photovoltaics and renewable energies were specifically addressed by an industry day, and the direct social impact of using solar cells in order to enhance the life of Wayúu community in Guajira Colombia was discussed.

 

 

Congratulations to…

  • Juan David Villada, Universidad del Valle (Colombia)

 

  • Juanita Hidalgo, Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)

 

  • Juana Marlene Pinanjota, Escuela Politécnica Nacional (Ecuador)

 

 

 

Poster prizes were sponsored by Materials Horizons, Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Journal of Materials Chemistry C. All posters were judged by Professor Nazario Martin (Editor-in-Chief  JMC A), Professor Wolfgang Tress (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), and Dr Juan Pablo Correa (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) before being awarded by Dr Walter Torres (Universidad del Valle).

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Enhanced lithium storage properties of oriented metal oxide nanodots on graphene

The synthesis of oriented metal oxide nanodots on graphene oxide (GO) sheets using a surfactant-directed assembly strategy was recently reported by Professor Liqiang Mai and co-workers in Materials Horizons. This technique presents a versatile and general method for the synthesis of carbon-confined metal oxide nanodots, as well as a way to significantly enhance the energy storage properties of metal oxide nanocomposites.

Tin dioxide (SnO2) is a promising candidate electrode material for high performance lithium-ion batteries, due to its high theoretical capacity. However, the large volume expansion caused by lithium intercalation into SnO2 (up to 300%) results in poor cycling stability. In this article, metal-ligand bonds were used to immobilise SnO2 nanodot precursors onto a functionalised GO surface. The nanodots were complexed with organic ligands and subsequently carbonised to form nanocrystalline carbon-confined metal oxide nanodots (C@SnO2@Gr). Nanocrystallinity was achieved through the mismatched coordination of the organic ligands, as the distortion prevented aggregation of the precursor and crystal growth across larger areas.

When tested in a lithium-ion battery, the C@SnO2@Gr nanodots were found to have exceptional cycling stability and capacity over 1200 cycles in comparison to similar carbonised SnO2 nanocomposites. The material also demonstrated excellent rate capabilities, facilitated by its high surface area.

This paper highlights a promising method for the general synthesis of metal oxide nanodots, including SnO2, Cr2O3, Fe3O4, and Al2O3. Furthermore, this method could be used to enhance the lithium storage capabilities of metal oxide materials for future energy storage applications.

 

Read the full paper here:
Jiashen Meng, Ziang Liu, Chaojiang Niu, Linhan Xu, Xuanpeng Wang, Qi Li, Xiujuan Wei, Wei Yang, Lei Huang and Liqiang Mai
Mater. Horiz., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C7MH00801E

 

Markus Müllner is a member of the Community Board for Materials Horizons and an academic at The University of Sydney. Markus and Honours student Olivia McRae are interested in nanostructuring electrode materials to advance performance of lithium ion batteries. https://www.polymernanostructures.com/

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Congratulations to our Highly Cited board members!

We are delighted to have many world-leading materials science researchers on our Editorial Board and on our Advisory Board, helping to guide Materials Horizons as a premier journal publishing first reports of exceptional significance.

Many have been recognized in Clarivate Analytics’ recently published 2017 Highly Cited Researchers list!

Congratulations from the Materials Horizons team to…

…Editorial Board members

…and Advisory Board members

  • Paul Blom, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
  • Yong Cao, South China University of Technology, China
  • Naomi Halas, Rice University, USA, Rice University, USA
  • Martin Heeney, Imperial College London, UK
  • Taeghwan Hyeon, Seoul National University, South Korea
  • René Janssen, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
  • Susumu Kitagawa, Kyoto University, Japan
  • Frederik Krebs, Elite Science, Denmark
  • Nathan Lewis, California Institute of Technology, USA
  • Bin Liu, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  • Chad Mirkin, Northwestern University, USA
  • John A Rogers, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
  • Yi Xie, University of Science and Technology of China, China
  • Peidong Yang, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  • Shu-Hong Yu, University of Science and Technology of China, China
  • Dongyuan Zhao, Fudan University, China

Click on their names to check out some of their most recently published work in Materials Horizons.

If you think you might have some work that represents a brand new concept of exceptional significance then get in touch on materialshorizons-rsc@rsc.org

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4th International Conference on Organic Electronics – 2018

Materials Horizons is pleased to be sponsoring the 14th International Conference on Organic Electronics – 2018 (ICOE-2018) to be held on June 18 – 22, 2018 in Bordeaux, France.

ICOE is an annual serie of conferences dedicated to the state-of-the-art research in organic electronics. The ICOE-2018, organized by Professor Guillaume Wantz, Associate Editor of Materials Chemistry Frontiers, and Professor Natalie Stingelin, Associate Editor Journal of Materials Chemistry C , will bring together the most excellent researchers from academy as well as industry to discuss fundamental aspects of organic semiconductors, demonstrate their vision of the road-map of organic electronics and to exchange ideas on future materials, technologies, and applications.

Some excellent speakers are confirmed, including members of the Materials Horizons Editorial Board: Editor-in-Chief Professor Seth Marder, Scientific Editor Thuc-Quyen Nguyen, and Editorial Board member Professor Kazuo Takimiya.

Important dates

  • 2017, November 1st – Abstract submission start
  • 2018, January 15th – Abstracts submission deadline
  • 2018, March 1st – Early bird registration deadline
  • 2018, June 1st – Standard registration deadline

Visit the conference homepage for more information.

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