RSC Advances 2022 Outstanding Student Paper Award webinars

We are delighted to announce the winners of our 2022 Outstanding Student Paper Awards. We are celebrating this year’s winners with a series of webinars and encouraging submissions for 2023 and onwards!

The RSC Advances Outstanding Student Paper Awards recognise outstanding work published in the journal, for which a substantial component of the research was conducted by a student. For 2022 we received over 550 nominations, which were shortlisted, and the winning papers were then selected by our Editorial Board and Associate Editors.

 

You can view the winning contributions and hear more about the winners here:

Editorial        Full Collection

In the series of webinars, award winners will present their research and there will be an opportunity to ask the winners questions about their work.

Registration is free, so sign up now by clicking the your chosen session below, to support our winners and hear about the exciting research that helped them to win the award!

 

Outstanding Student Paper Award Webinars

Session 1: 11th October, 2023
9:00 BST | 10:00 CEST | 16:00 CST
Session 2: 18th October, 2023
8:00 PDT | 11:00 EDT | 16:00 BST
Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Toni Pringle, Newcastle University, UK Analytical Chemistry Margaret MacConnachie, Queen’s University, Canada
Energy Chemistry Karina Asheim, NTNU, Norway Computational & Theoretical Chemistry Stephanie Linker & Christian Schellhaas, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Nanoscience Rabia Tahir, NUST, Pakistan Inorganic Chemistry Nicole DiBlasi, University of Notre Dame, USA
Physical Chemistry Rawia Msalmi, Sfax University, Tunisia Materials Chemistry Despoina Eleftheriadou, UCL, UK
  Organic Chemistry Alejandro O. Viviano-Posadas, NAUM, Mexico
[Registration link] [Registration link]

Apologies from a few of our winners who are unable to attend: Catalysis Gen Li, Dalian University of Technology, China; Environmental Chemistry Cui Li, China University of Geosciences, China; Food Chemistry Xingyu Ding, Nanjing Tech University, China

Looking forward: RSC Advances Outstanding Student Paper Awards 2023 and onwards

We will continue to recognise outstanding student contributions and give out these awards each year. If you published a research article in 2023 or go on to publish with the journal in the future, and the first author or co-first author must have been a student at the time of carrying out the research, we invite them to join us in future editions of this series. Please look at our webpage for more information or submit now!

 

Submit to RSC Advances today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest Popular Advances, Reviews, Collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

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August 2023 Popular Advances Articles

Welcome to August’s Popular Advances article round up!

Every month we update our 2023 RSC Advances Popular Advances Article Collection to showcase all of the articles selected by our reviewers and handling editors as Popular Advances in 2023. Don’t forget to come back next month to check out our latest Popular articles.

We hope you enjoy reading and as always, all of our articles are open access so you can easily share your favourites online and with your colleagues.

Explore the full collection!

 

Browse a selection of our August Popular Advances articles below:

AlCl3@ZnO nanostructured material: an efficient green catalyst for the one-pot solvent-free synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridines
Santosh T. Shinde, Kaluram G. Kanade, Ramesh B. Gawade, Vikram B. Hinge, Manish D. Shinde, Digambar B. Bankar, Nitin M. Thorat and Dinesh P. Amalnerkar
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 24767-24776

Synthesis of amantadine clubbed N-aryl amino thiazoles as potent urease, α-amylase & α-glucosidase inhibitors, kinetic and molecular docking studies
Fatima Tuz Zahra, Aamer Saeed, Atteeque Ahmed, Hammad Ismail, Muhammad Umar Ijaz and Fernando Albericio
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 24988-25001

On the way to potential antifungal compounds: synthesis and in vitro activity of 2-benzofuranylacetic acid amides
Camilo Mahecha-Mahecha, Paola Borrego-Muñoz, Luis M. Pombo and Diego Gamba-Sánchez
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 25296-25304

 

Submit to RSC Advances today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest Popular Advances, Reviews, Collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

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August 2023 RSC Advances Review Articles

Welcome to August’s Review round up!

Every month we update our 2023 Reviews in RSC Advances collection to showcase all of the review articles published in RSC Advances in 2023. Don’t forget to come back next month to check out our latest reviews.

We hope you enjoy reading and as always, all of our articles are open access so you can easily share your favourites online and with your colleagues.

Explore the full collection!

 

Browse a selection of our August reviews below:

Recent advances in the applications of graphene materials for the oil and gas industry
Yang Xuan, Luo Zhao, Daqi Li, Shaocong Pang and Yuxiu An
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 23169-23180

Advances in the synthetic strategies of benzoxazoles using 2-aminophenol as a precursor: an up-to-date review
Shivani Soni, Nusrat Sahiba, Sunita Teli, Pankaj Teli, Lokesh Kumar Agarwal and Shikha Agarwal
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 24093-24111

Recent developments, applications and challenges for carbon quantum dots as a photosynthesis enhancer in agriculture
Yamuna A/P Chowmasundaram, Tong Ling Tan, Rosimah Nulit, Mashitah Jusoh and Suraya Abdul Rashid
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 25093-25117

Research progress of metal–organic framework-based material activation of persulfate to degrade organic pollutants in water
Ruiyang Wen, Guoliang Shen and Linghui Meng
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 24565-24575

Gallium-based nascent electrode materials towards promising supercapacitor applications: a review
Amtul Nashim, Ritik Mohanty, Priyadarshi K. Ray and K. M. Parida
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 24536-24553

 

 

Submit to RSC Advances today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest Popular Advances, Reviews, Collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

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July 2023 RSC Advances Review Articles

Welcome to July’s Review round up!

Every month we update our 2023 Reviews in RSC Advances collection to showcase all of the review articles published in RSC Advances in 2023. Don’t forget to come back next month to check out our latest reviews.

We hope you enjoy reading and as always, all of our articles are open access so you can easily share your favourites online and with your colleagues.

Explore the full collection!

 

Browse a selection of our July reviews below:

Recent advances in bio-based polybenzoxazines as an interesting adhesive coating
Hafsah A. Klfout, Abdullah M. Asiri, Khalid A. Alamry and Mahmoud A. Hussein
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 19817-19835

Advanced progress on the significant influences of multi-dimensional nanofillers on the tribological performance of coatings
Ruili Wang, Yahui Xiong, Kang Yang, Taiping Zhang, Feizhi Zhang, Bangying Xiong, Yongxing Hao, Honglei Zhang, Yang Chen and Jun Tang
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 19981-20022

Recent advances in the application of magnetic nanocatalysts in multicomponent reactions
Hojat Veisi, Mozhgan Pirhayati, Pourya Mohammadi, Taiebeh Tamoradi, Saba Hemmati and Bikash Karmakar
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 20530-20556

The key role of pretreatment for the one-step and multi-step conversions of European lignocellulosic materials into furan compounds
Maroua Kammoun, Antigoni Margellou, Vesislava B. Toteva, Anna Aladjadjiyan, Andreai F. Sousa, Santiago V. Luis, Eduardo Garcia-Verdugo, Konstantinos S. Triantafyllidis and Aurore Richel
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 21587-21612

Nanostructured wearable electrochemical and biosensor towards healthcare management: a review
M. A. Khaleque, M. I. Hossain, M. R. Ali, M. S. Bacchu, M. Aly Saad Aly and M. Z. H. Khan
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 22973-22997

 

Submit to RSC Advances today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest Popular Advances, Reviews, Collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

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July 2023 Popular Advances Articles

Welcome to July’s Popular Advances article round up!

Every month we update our 2023 RSC Advances Popular Advances Article Collection to showcase all of the articles selected by our reviewers and handling editors as Popular Advances in 2023. Don’t forget to come back next month to check out our latest Popular articles.

We hope you enjoy reading and as always, all of our articles are open access so you can easily share your favourites online and with your colleagues.

Explore the full collection!

 

Browse a selection of our July Popular Advances articles below:

Insight into novel anti-mucormycosis therapies: investigation of new anti-mucormycosis laser-induced photodynamic therapy based on a sulphone bis-compound loaded silica nanoemulsion
Mohamed Abdelraof, Mohamed Fikry, Amr H. Hashem, Mehrez E. El-Naggar and Huda R. M. Rashdan
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 20684-20697

Design, synthesis and evaluation of a myricetin and nobiletin hybrid compound for alleviating hyperuricemia based on metabolomics and gut microbiota
Yan Li, Liu-Yang Pu, Yayun Li, Guanbao Zhu and Zhengzhi Wu
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 21448-21458

Chitosan-coated halloysite nanotube magnetic microspheres for carcinogenic colorectal hemorrhage and liver laceration in albino rats
Sajid Majeed, Muhammad Qaiser, Dure Shahwar, Khalid Mahmood, Nadeem Ahmed, Muhammad Hanif, Ghulam Abbas, Muhammad Harris Shoaib, Nabeela Ameer and Muhammad Khalid
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 21521-21536

Potential anticancer and antioxidant lauric acid-based hydrazone synthesis and computational study toward the electronic properties
Mohammed A. Assiri, Akbar Ali, Muhammad Ibrahim, Muhammad Usman Khan, Khalid Ahmed, Muhammad Sajid Hamid Akash, Muhammad Akhtar Abbas, Athar Javed, Muhammad Suleman, Muhammad Khalid and Ishtiaq Hussain
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 21793-21807

Engineering of a GSH activatable photosensitizer for enhanced photodynamic therapy through disrupting redox homeostasis
Datian Fu, Yan Wang, Kaiwen Lin, Liangjiu Huang, Jin Xu and Haimei Wu
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 22367-22374

Different routes for the construction of biologically active diversely functionalized bicyclo[3.3.1]nonanes: an exploration of new perspectives for anticancer chemotherapeutics
Nilmadhab Roy, Rishav Das, Rupankar Paira and Priyankar Paira
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 22389-22480

 

 

Submit to RSC Advances today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest Popular Advances, Reviews, Collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

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Conference special issue: 6th EuChemS Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry

In celebration of the 6th EuChemS Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry, a series of journals across the Royal Society of Chemistry are hosting a themed collection to celebrate research in this area. As a global society publisher, the RSC positions itself as a leading voice for the chemical sciences, which puts sustainability in the spotlight. We recognise the potential of the chemical sciences to provide innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges – and the importance of giving a platform to scientists whose discoveries catalyse global change.

The journals that are available to receive submissions in response to this open call include Catalysis Science & TechnologyGreen ChemistryRSC AdvancesReaction Chemistry & Engineering and RSC Sustainability.

This collection will celebrate both the vibrant and collaborative spirit of the conference, and the contribution green & sustainable chemistry makes to solving global challenges.

The scope of this collection covers the breadth of green & sustainable chemistry, with emphasis on the following areas:

  • Alternative fuels and green energy
  • Benign low-energy chemical processes
  • Biomass and CO2 utilization
  • Green chemistry metrics and environmental assessment
  • Pollution prevention and remediation
  • Sustainable catalytic, industrial and synthetic processes
  • Waste recycling and valorisation and the circular (bio)economy

The submission deadline is 1st April 2024.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Royal Society of Chemistry’s online submission service and the Editorial Office informed by email. Please state the code “XX6GCEUC24” in the “Comments to the Editor” submission question when you submit your manuscript, to indicate that this is a submission for the themed collection.

Please note that while we welcome submissions to all journals listed above, we are unable to guarantee peer review or eventual acceptance in your chosen journal. If a submission is not found to be suitable for the chosen journal, we will endeavour to find the most suitable home within the portfolio of journals included.

The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of the collection and inclusion of accepted articles in the collection is not guaranteed. All manuscripts will be subject to the journal’s usual peer review process. Accepted manuscripts will be added to the online collection as soon as they are online and they will be published in a regular issue of the journal.

 

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RSC Advances Emerging Investigators Series 2022 – Author Spotlight

Welcome to our Emerging Investigators Series 2022! This series, led by Prof Shirley Nakagaki (Federal University of Paraná, Brazil) and Dr Fabienne Dumoulin (Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar Universit, Türkiye), highlights the very best work from early-career researchers in all areas of chemistry. 10 papers were published as part of the collection spanning the breadth of chemistry on topics ranging from green and environmental chemistry, to biological and bioinorganic chemistry, as well as papers that propose theoretical calculations as solutions to chemistry problems. You can read all about the contributions in this accompanying Editorial prepared by Shirley.

We would like to take this opportunity to highlight an author from the series, . We interviewed Ivaldo Itabaiana Junior to find out more about his area of research and his contribution to the series.

Lipase-catalyzed acylation of levoglucosan in continuous flow: antibacterial and biosurfactant studies
Marcelo A. do Nascimento, Juan P. C. Vargas, José G. A. Rodrigues, Raquel A. C. Leão, Patricia H. B. de Moura, Ivana C. R. Leal, Jonathan Bassut, Rodrigo O. M. A. de Souza, Robert Wojcieszake and Ivaldo Itabaiana, Jr
RSC Adv., 2022,12, 3027-3035

Professor Ivaldo Itabaiana Junior holds a degree in Pharmacy from the Federal University of Rio Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil (2009), a PhD in Pharmaceutical Science from UFRJ (2013) with a sandwich period at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (Athens, Greece), as well as a post-doctorate in Biocatalysis from the Institute of Chemistry of UFRJ, and a Post-doctorate in hybrid catalysis from UCCS – CNRS (Lille, France).

Since 2014, he is an adjunct professor at the School of Chemistry of UFRJ, where he has been developing research on the application of the concepts of biocatalysis, biotransformation, photocatalysis and hybrid catalysis in the valorization of residual lignocellulosic biomass aiming at obtaining value-added compounds, such as enzymes, surfactants, polymers and building blocks, in order to obtain a zero-waste biorefinery. He has more than 58 published papers, and international collaborations, such as UCCS-Lille (France), UCL (Belgium), Universidad de Córdoba (Spain), EIE (Greece), and others. He has more than 12 graduate students, and is currently vice-coordinator of the Graduate Program in Chemical and Biochemical Process Engineering at UFRJ. In his career, he has won awards such as the best doctoral thesis at UFRJ (2014), as well as the Capes Thesis Award, at the national level. He also has projects funded by being a Young Scientist, and a research productivity fellow.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?

This article aimed to obtain a compound with antibacterial and surfactant properties from a precursor derived from agro-industrial waste, as a form of reuse, aiming at an environmentally friendly process.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?

This work can generate an industrial product that presents great biosurfactant and antibacterial capacity, produced under mild conditions of reaction, since it comes from an enzymatic way and presents as substrate the levoglucosan, originated from residual biomass pyrolysis. Therefore, our results move towards a possible construction of an integrated process of valorisation of lignocellulosic biomass, with probability of low cost steps.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?

My research currently involves the valorization of Brazilian and worldwide residual biomass, aiming to obtain molecules that contribute to the society in general, in order to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life. The lignocellulosic residues, as a reflection of the increase in life expectancy of the world population and the consequent industrialization, have increased alarmingly, and new processes to add these components back into the productive chain are required. Our group has work in this challenging area, where this article is part of a project of valorisation of levoglucosan, a compound that has origin in the fast pyrolysis of these biomasses.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?

Levoglucosan (LG) is a challenging molecule since it is obtained through pyrolysis of residual lignocellulosic biomass. Our group has been studying better conditions to obtain LG through fast pyrolysis of several biomasses. As it is a complex mixture of compounds, pyrolysis products also challenge us to develop new technologies for the best use of these fractions, and with this, my line of research has been based on the coupling of biocatalysis, photocatalysis, and hybrid catalysis in obtaining new compounds that can add value and return the residual biomass to the production chain, as a way of establishing future zero biorefineries.
LG chemically challenges us in obtaining compounds of industrial importance, since it presents a structure with steric hindrance, and there are still few published works where this molecule is applied as a substrate or starting reagent for obtaining derived compounds. Therefore, we seek to fill a gap in the literature, and we hope to succeed.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?

In my opinion, the characterization of the esterification reaction products were the most challenging, since levoglucosan presents a differentiated stereochemistry, generating the possibility of formation of more than one product. Thus, some previous steps of separation and characterization with different physical methods were necessary to evaluate and quantify the products formed. Moreover, the biomass pyrolysis and optimization step to obtain larger amounts of levoglucosan also deserves attention due to the complexity of lignocellulosic materials.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

At this point in our research, we were able to couple important results on photocatalysis and biocatalysis in the construction of new catalysts that managed to improve the reaction selectivity of LG with other compounds, in order to obtain new molecules with biosurfactant potential. We are advancing in this part and managing to build new catalytic systems for the valorization of other molecules from residual biomass.
We are also investing in collaborations for process modeling and building robust models for the prediction of better catalytic conditions, which are more economically viable and sustainable, and we are obtaining encouraging results.

How has your research evolved from your first article to this particular article?

My first paper in my scientific career was published demonstrating the phytochemical study of medicinal plants with antimicrobial properties. Currently, we seek, through the valorization of lignocellulosic biomass, to obtain new molecules that also have this application. It is interesting to carry out this relationship, where I could realize that over time, I could follow the evolution of science and technology, and couple the knowledge acquired in my work, without escaping my main objectives, which are to find molecules that can improve the quality of life of the world population.

What is the next step? What work is planned?

Some molecules derived from lignocellulosic biomass showed potential biological activity, and in this sense, the next steps will be to improve yields and selectivity in obtaining these compounds, increase the scale of production and perform new more specific assays to determine mechanism of action and new models of activity. We hope to continue publishing new processes, technologies and integrated results of synthesis and application.

Why did you want to publish in RSC Advances?

The publication of the article in RSC Advances came from a prior invitation from the editor, which we were very happy about. The journal has a relevant impact in the area of biocatalysis and biotechnology, with very inspiring works. Our group already has previous works in this journal, the impact was very positive.

What are your thoughts on open access publishing?

In my opinion Open Access publishing should be a standard within the academic world. The dissemination of knowledge is a fundamental pillar for science, which is the one that produces knowledge. Unfortunately, the capitalist world still imposes many barriers for scientists to know the work of other colleagues, or to carry out more grandiose research, which could improve the quality of life of the world population. And it all starts with greater access to information.

RSC Advances Royal Society of Chemistry

Submit to RSC Advances today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest  Popular Advances articles, Reviews, Collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

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Minerals2Materials – Interview with Foster Mbaiwa

On 26th – 27th June 2023, in celebration of Professor Nora de Leeuw’s 60th birthday, University College London held a two day symposium including presentations and discussions on recent experimental and theoretical progress in the investigation of mineral-based materials.

RSC Advances were lucky enough to sponsor the event and offer a bursary to an early career researcher from Africa to attend and give an oral presentation at this event.

Foster Mbaiwa is an Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry at Botswana International University of Science and Technology. He completed his PhD on dipole moment effect effects in photodetachment from cluster anions at Washington University, St. Louis in 2011. His research interests surround the production of biodiesel from various feedstocks and catalytic conversion to hydrocarbon fuels using mixed metal oxides, as well as molecular dynamics simulation of industrially important liquid mixtures.

At the conference, Foster presented a computational study of the decarboxylation of methyl palmitate using NiMoO4 catalyst – towards improving the flow properties of biodiesel”.

 

Professor Nora de Leeuw, Associate Professor Foster Mbaiwa and RSC Advances Assistant Editor Namita Datta

Foster told us more about the research and what he hopes to achieve in the future. He gave some advice for early career researchers and his thoughts on open access publishing.

What is the focus of your research and why it is of current interest?

The focus of this research is to improve the flow properties of biodiesel. Essentially, we want to make sure that biodiesel is similar to fossil fuel so that it doesn’t harm the engine. There are many ways you can do this, for example, mixing the fuel so that it is 90% diesel and 10% biodiesel. Or you can change the chemical structure and composition of biodiesel, so it is closer to diesel. We can use a catalyst to convert the biodiesel in the hopes of creating a cleaner, more available diesel, thus reducing the demand for fossil fuel. The focus of this study is finding a catalyst that is able to do that without producing small chain hydrocarbons – we want to improve the catalytic selectivity.

What are the key design considerations for your study?

It is important that the catalyst is safe and environmentally friendly. The catalyst should reduce the energy demand on the whole process. We must also consider the recyclability of the catalyst. Of course, we must consider affordability too – catalyst with metal centres (such as copper) are cheaper.

Which part of the research proved to be the most challenging?

The surface selection. Selecting a surface with all the right properties can be challenging. If you don’t choose the right surface, the catalyst can be too reactive.

To go about this, we started with the current catalysts that are used. Currently, the active centre used is nickel – it is easily attainable as it a by-product of a copper mine in Botswana. Understanding these surfaces allowed us to suggest improvements.

What aspect of the work are you most excited about?

The application of reactive molecular dynamics to catalysis – using computational chemistry to map reactions and visualise new structures. Although new to me, this field has been around for a long time and has proven to be highly effective.

How has your research evolved from your first article to this particular article? What do you have planned next?

I actually completed my PhD in the United States on the photoelectron spectroscopy of anions. When I moved back home there wasn’t as much funding for laboratory work, so I changed direction to computing. I had support from the Centre for High-Performance Computing and I managed to adapt.

Hopefully, funding permitting, I can move from the computer back to the lab to design catalysts based on what’s been discovered through the simulations. The aim is to perfect a catalyst for the decarboxylation of methyl esters into green diesel.

In the future, through collaboration, I would like to return to spectroscopy. For instance, exploring computational chemistry in the direction of spectroscopy. Combining mass spectrometry of anions with theoretical calculations could be really interesting in terms of astrophysics. One idea I’m interested in is the application of theoretical mass spectrometry in studying ions which can only occur under extreme conditions, hence difficultly to study this experimentally.

What advice would you give to students and early career researchers in a similar situation to yourself?

PhD students – talk to people! The more you network the more you’ll realise you’re not the only person with problems. The chances are you will find someone who can help you. Make sure to really think about the research you’re doing now because it might be the defining research of your life. Could you see yourself doing this forever? If not, that’s okay! You can always change direction, it is one of the freedoms of life.

Early career researchers – don’t run away from your mentors too quickly. There will always be someone with more experience than you – learn from them.

What are some of the challenges you have faced as a researcher working in Botswana and what positive progress have you seen throughout your career so far?

Laboratory resources are limited and even with computational chemistry you need high computational power. The Centre for High Performance Computing is great but a lot of researchers in Africa rely on it – it’s a limited resource. Computational chemistry is not taught here because we simply don’t have the resources. However, throughout my career I’ve seen a lot of great students who are willing to take on the challenge and learn on the fly.

Do you have any recommendations for improving the STEM workforce to create an environment that better supports researchers from lower- and middle-income countries? Is there anything publishers such as the RSC can do to help?

Following on from my previous answer, it would be great to see publishers such as the RSC provide funding for students to learn computational science. We have benefited from this in the past and it contributes to the positive progress we’ve made. The computational chemistry society is very supportive and helps create a great network for researchers in Africa and the UK.

Finally, what are your thoughts on open access publishing?

As a researcher, and end user of published research, open access is the best! It allows for easy access to papers – it’s like gold! In that regard it helps a lot of researchers from poorly funded universities and institutions.*

However, at the same time, there is the idea that open access is motivated by money rather than research. The pressure to publish is very much there, and there’s a belief that “predatory” open access journals benefit from this. Also, from a university management perspective, there’s this idea that papers in open access journals are generally of lower quality – this might be because the reviewing process often leaves something to be desired.

My advice to researchers would be to avoid these “predatory” journals. My advice to publishers would be to ensure that peer review is rigorous and so does not tarnish the benefits of open access.**

Anything else to note?

I would like to thank RSC Advances for this opportunity – I am very grateful.

*RSC’s journals provide APC waivers for authors from low and middle income countries, in line with the Research4Life programme.

**RSC Advances has recently introduced Transparent Peer Review (TPR) as an option for authors. TPR is where the reviewer reports, authors’ response to reviewers, and decision letters are published alongside the manuscript. A top priority for the journal is to ensure rigorous and high-quality peer review, so by offering TPR we hope to ensure transparency around the peer review process, offering our readers a chance to understand the scientific discussions behind an accepted article. Please see here for more information on TPR.

Submit to RSC Advances today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

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RSC Advances Outstanding Student Paper Awards 2022

We are delighted to announce our winners for the RSC Advances Outstanding Student Paper Awards 2022.

These awards recognise outstanding work published in the journal in 2022, for which a substantial component of the research was conducted by a student. We received over 550 nominations, highlighting the incredible talent and potential within the next generation of chemists. The nominations were shortlisted, and the winning papers were then selected by our Editorial Board and Associate Editors.

Below, we congratulate the winner of each subject category, and highlight the research paper that won them the award. We look forward to witnessing their continued growth and impact as they embark on a promising career in the field of chemistry.

Analytical chemistry

Margaret MacConnachie, Queen’s University, Canada

Margaret is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Sex determination of mummies through multi-elemental analysis of head hair using electrothermal vaporization coupled to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

Originally hailing from Alberta, Canada, Margaret moved to Ontario to pursue her bachelor’s degree at Queen’s University. She received her BScH in 2018, with a major in chemistry and a minor in classical studies. During the last year of her degree, she completed a fourth-year research project on the analysis of solder for applications in forensic science, which sparked her interest in analytical chemistry. Following the completion of her undergraduate work, she stayed at Queen’s University to complete a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Diane Beauchemin, working on projects which combine elemental analysis with both forensic and archaeological sciences. She recently submitted her thesis, titled ‘Novel Forensic and Archaeological Applications of Methods Involving the Direct Multi-Elemental Analysis of Solid Materials’. In the last year of her doctoral program, she received a MITACS Globalink Research Award which allowed her to spend six months working in an archaeometry research group at the University of Southern Denmark (Odense campus). Although interested in many areas of analytical chemistry, she has a particular passion for the intersection between chemical analysis, cultural heritage, and archaeology.

 

Biological and Medicinal Chemistry

Toni Pringle, Newcastle University, UK

Toni is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in The influence of degree of labelling upon cellular internalisation of antibody-cell penetrating peptide conjugates

Toni is a 4th year postgraduate researcher working with Dr James Knight at Newcastle University. Her research focuses on synthesis and preclinical evaluation of radioimmunoconjugates for positron emission tomography and fluorescence imaging, and cancer therapy. This includes the development of dual-modal antibody constructs for pre- and intra-operative imaging of sarcoma to enhance both surgical planning and the identification of tumour margins. She is also developing novel antibody constructs with cell-internalising properties for both diagnosis and therapy of cancer. Her current position follows the award of a 1st class MChem (Hons) degree in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry from Newcastle University. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking in the Lake District, snowboarding and sailing.

 

Catalysis

Gen Li, Dalian University of Technology, China

Gen is recognised for his outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Highly dispersed ruthenium nanoparticles on nitrogen doped carbon toward efficient hydrogen evolution in both alkaline and acidic electrolytes

Gen Li obtained his B.S degree (2019) and M.S. (2022) degree in chemical engineering from Dalian University of Technology. He is now a Ph.D. student at the Dalian University of Technology under the supervision of Professor Yujiang Song. His current research mainly focus on electrocatalysts and membrane electrode assembly toward hydrogen evolution reaction and/or oxygen evolution reaction in polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis.

 

Computational & Theoretical Chemistry

                      

Stephanie Linker & Christian Schellhaas, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Stephanie and Christian are recognised for their outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Polar/apolar interfaces modulate the conformational behavior of cyclic peptides with impact on their passive membrane permeability

Stephanie holds a double degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. In her studies she focused on the development of computational models for complex biological processes. Afterwards, Stephanie joined the Computational Chemistry group of Prof. Riniker at ETH Zurich, Switzerland for her PhD.  There she used molecular dynamics simulations to study the permeability mechanism of large drug molecules. After defending her PhD in January 2023, Stephanie joined Merck (EMD) as a Computational Chemist. Beyond her academic achievements, Stephanie is a passionate advocate for science and is active in the board of the Swiss chemical society where she is responsible for international collaborations.

Christian studied Interdisciplinary Sciences with a focus on Chemical Biology and Theoretical Chemistry at ETH Zurich. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in the field of protein engineering under supervision of Prof. Bruno Correia at EPFL Lausanne. Initially, Christian started working on the computational design of proteins during his master’s thesis project in the research group of Prof. Possu Huang at Stanford University. Inspired by the work on the conformational behaviour of cyclic peptides, his current research interest focuses on the conformational dynamics of proteins and how these dynamics can inform the design of binding proteins. In his leisure time, Christian likes to play tennis and to make most of the Swiss Alps, be it by hiking in summer or skiing in winter.

 

Energy Chemistry

Karina Asheim, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Karina is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Improved electrochemical performance and solid electrolyte interphase properties of electrolytes based on lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide for high content silicon anodes

Karina graduated from a 5-year Master’s program in chemical engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2016. During the study she specialized in materials science and materials for energy technology, finishing with a Master Thesis on Mg-ion batteries. Continuing in the world of batteries, she started on a PhD project in Li-ion batteries where the work focussed on electrolyte for silicon-based anodes. The work was supervised by Prof. Ann Mari Svensson, was carried out at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and was completed in 2021. Now Karina works on battery separators for a Norwegian polymer R&D company called Norner AS.

 

Environmental Chemistry

Cui Li, China University of Geosciences, China

Cui is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Response of chlorinated hydrocarbon transformation and microbial community structure in an aquifer to joint H2 and O2

Cui Li, doctor from China University of Geosciences, majoring in Environmental Science and Engineering. The research direction focuses on microorganisms, with the goal of achieving efficient treatment of pollutants. The main researches are environmental microbiology, microbial community function and its transformation mechanism of organic pollutants. Published 3 SCI papers and applied for 2 utility model patents during the doctoral period.

 

Food Chemistry

Xingyu Ding, Nanjing Tech University, China

Xingyu is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Preparation of chitosan-coated polystyrene microspheres for the analysis of trace Pb(II) ions in salt by GF-AAS assisted with solid-phase extraction

Ding Xingyu, was born in Jiangsu Province, China in 1997. Her bachelor’s and master’s degrees were obtained from Nanjing University of Technology under the supervision of Associate Professor Li Yi, and all of her research achievements are inseparable from his guidance and assistance. Her research direction is food safety, and the title of her master’s project is “Research and Preparation of Novel Polymer Carriers for Concentration and Enrichment of Harmful Heavy Metal Ions”.

This article, “Preparation of Chitosan-coated Polystyrene Microspheres for the Analysis of Trace Pb(II) Ions in Salt by GF-AAS Assisted with Solid-phase Extraction”, focuses on the enrichment and analysis of harmful heavy metal lead in food. This article studies and prepares a polymer microsphere to overcome the interference of high salt background and achieve the separation and detection of heavy metal lead.

In the future, food safety will receive increasing attention, and the enrichment materials and detection methods for heavy metals will also show diversified development. Xingyu hopes that the food safety industry will flourish and more scholars will join in.

 

Inorganic Chemistry

Nicole DiBlasi, University of Notre Dame, USA

Nicole is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Pu(III) and Cm(III) in the presence of EDTA: aqueous speciation, redox behavior, and the impact of Ca(II)

Nicole A. DiBlasi is a Scientist in Actinide Analytical Chemistry at Los Alamos National Lab with 8 years of experience in actinide and environmental radiochemistry. After receiving her bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of Missouri in 2016, Nicole pursued her doctorate in actinide chemistry at the University of Notre Dame under the guidance of Dr. Amy E. Hixon where her doctoral research focused on the speciation, solubility, and redox behaviour of the Pu-EDTA system under conditions relevant for deep geological repositories. In addition to her dissertation work, Nicole was able to participate in other projects including work with novel actinide compound synthesis and characterization and the development of synthesis methods for post-detonation nuclear melt glass reference materials for use in nuclear forensics. Following the completion of her Ph.D. in 2021, Nicole became a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute for Nuclear Waste Disposal at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany, where she performed research on actinide- and technetium-organic interactions under alkaline and high ionic strength conditions. In late 2022, Nicole accepted a position as a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory where she performs high accuracy, high precision analyses on actinide materials as part of the Radiochemistry team in the Actinide Analytical Chemistry group.

 

Materials Chemistry

Despoina Eleftheriadou, University College London, UK

Despoina is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in An alginate-based encapsulation system for delivery of therapeutic cells to the CNS

Despoina Eleftheriadou obtained her MEng in Chemical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2016. She then completed her M.Sc. in Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine at University College London in 2018. During this time, she was able to work on various projects including nanobiomaterials for Alzheimer’s disease treatment and immunomodulation for therapeutic cell transplantation in the CNS. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University College London Centre for Nerve Engineering, focusing on mathematical modelling led design of nerve repair constructs. Her research interest lies in working at the interface of engineering and life sciences.

 

Nanoscience

Rabia Tahir, National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan

Rabia is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in First observation on emergence of strong room-temperature ferroelectricity and multiferroicity in 2D-Ti3C2Tx free-standing MXene film

Born in Multan (southern Punjab city of Pakistan) and completed her Bachelor’s degree from The Women University Multan (WUM), Rabia Tahir is currently enrolled as a PhD student at Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences (SNS), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. Under the expert guidance of her supervisor, Prof. Dr. Syed Rizwan, she embarks on a journey to explore the unique properties and potential applications of 2D materials such as MXene and their potential as a ferroelectric and multiferroic material that has been a long-standing issue of interest in the research community. Rabia Tahir reported the ferroelectricity and multiferroicity in 2D Ti3C2Tx MXene for the first time that may revolutionize next-generation data storage devices with enhanced functionalities.

Rabia Tahir is also hired as research associate under the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan under project No. 20-14784/NRPU/R&D/HEC/2021. In her leisure time, she likes to play sports and reads books with inspiring lessons.

 

Organic Chemistry

Alejandro O. Viviano-Posadas, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico

Alejandro is recognised for his outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Efficient fluorescent recognition of ATP/GTP by a water-soluble bisquinolinium pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide compound. Crystal structures, spectroscopic studies and interaction mode with DNA

Alejandro Viviano was born in Mexico City. He received his B.Sc. (2019) and M.Sc. (2021) degrees with theses focused on the synthesis and luminescent properties of novel Pd/Pt-based complexes with analytical applications. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. with Professor Alejandro Dorazco at the Chemistry Institute from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

His research involves the molecular recognition of neurotransmitters and nucleotides using novel organometallic and organic receptors. To date, their scientific results have been published in seven research articles. (ORCID: 0000-0002-3588-5836)

 

Physical Chemistry

Rawia Msalmi, Sfax University, Tunisia

Rawia is recognised for her outstanding contribution in the research advance presented in Organically tuned white-light emission from two zero-dimensional Cd-based hybrids

Dr. Rawia Msalmi obtained a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, Sfax University, Tunisia. During her thesis, she performed the physico-chemical characterization of Cd- and Pb-based white light emitter hybrid materials (WLEHMs). Her research focus was on the contribution of the organic molecules and the tridimensional assembly mode in the performance of the emitted white light. She has published the findings of her Ph.D. study in four peer-reviewed journal articles. In line with her Ph.D. work, she contributed in other research papers on the study of optical behavior of one-dimensional Cu-based perovskites published in Journal of Material Chemistry C as second co-author.

Dr. Rawia Msalmi is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Physico-Chemistry of the Solid State, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, Sfax University, Tunisia, under the supervision of professor Houcine Naïli. Her present investigation focuses on the stabilization and physico-chemical characterization of lead-free hybrid materials for environmentally friendly photovoltaic solar cells and lighting sources. She co-supervises research activities in the same field. Thus far, she has 10 publications in highly impacted journals.

 

Please join us in congratulating all of our winners for their exceptional achievement.

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June 2023 Popular Advances Articles

Welcome to June’s Popular Advances article round up!

Every month we update our 2023 RSC Advances Popular Advances Article Collection to showcase all of the articles selected by our reviewers and handling editors as Popular Advances in 2023. Don’t forget to come back next month to check out our latest Popular articles.

We hope you enjoy reading and as always, all of our articles are open access so you can easily share your favourites online and with your colleagues.

Explore the full collection!

 

Browse a selection of our June Popular Advances articles below:

“d-electron interactions” induced CoV2O6–Fe–NF for efficient oxygen evolution reaction
Yuchao Guo, Gaojie Yan,a Xi Sun, Shuo Wang, Li Chena and Yi Feng
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 18488-18495

Ternifolipyrons A–J: new cytotoxic α-pyrones from Isodon ternifolius (D. Don) Kudô
Abdelsamed I. Elshamy, Tarik A. Mohamed, Ningombam Swapana, Yusuke Kasai, Masaaki Noji, Thomas Efferth, Hiroshi Imagawa, Mohamed-Elamir F. Hegazy and Akemi Umeyama
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 19710-19720

In vitro antitumor activity, molecular dynamics simulation, DFT study, ADME prediction, and Eg5 binding of enastron analogues
Abdeslem Bouzina, Yousra Ouafa Bouone, Omar Sekiou, Mohamed Aissaoui, Tan-Sothea Ouk, Abdelhak Djemel, Rachida Mansouri, Malika Ibrahim-Ouali, Zihad Bouslama and Nour-Eddine Aouf
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 19567-19584

Exploring the inhibitory potential of Nigella sativa against dengue virus NS2B/NS3 protease and NS5 polymerase using computational approaches
Mamuna Mukhtar, Haris Ahmed Khan and Najam us Sahar Sadaf Zaidi
RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 18306-18322

 

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