Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Congratulations to the winners of the best poster awards at ECME 2025 in Cambridge, UK.

Molecular Systems Design and Engineering poster prize was awarded to: Wentao Shan, KAUST

Journal of Materials Chemistry B poster prize was awarded to: Beier Hu, Imperial College

Materials Advances poster prize was awarded to: Giacomo Cotelli, University of Bayreuth

Journal of Materials Chemistry C poster prize was awarded to: Yuyun Yao, University of Oxford

Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Biomaterials Science and Materials Advances were proud to sponsor three best poster awards at the SupraLife Final International Conference, which took place at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, from 29 September to 3 October.

1st best poster award (Journal of Materials Chemistry B):  Thibault Sampon, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

2nd best poster award (Biomaterials Science): Mariana Carreira, University of Aveiro, Portugal

3rd best poster award (Materials Advances): Lorenzo Fumagalli, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Materials Advances is delighted to announce an open call for papers to our new themed collection focusing on polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzers!

If you are interested in contributing to this collection, please get in touch with the Editorial Office by email.

This themed collection is Guest Edited by:

• Dr Shahid Zaman, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
• Professor Min Wang, China University of Petroleum (East China)

The growing demand for clean, renewable energy has intensified the need for efficient and sustainable technologies to produce hydrogen from water. Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers — encompassing both proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs) and anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) — are emerging as promising solutions for green hydrogen production due to their high efficiency, scalability, and ability to integrate with intermittent renewable energy sources. However, to fully unlock the potential of these technologies, significant advancements in materials design and engineering are required.

This collection will be structured around two main themes:

1. Research focusing on electrocatalyst materials and methods
2. Materials development for cell components

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Material and methods for OER and HER electrocatalyst fabrication
• Research on PEM electrolyzer components developments, including membranes, ionomers, porous transport layers, gas diffusion layers and bipolar plates
• Catalyst layer fabrication, materials, methods and methodologies for PEM water electrolyzer cells.

We are happy to consider both review articles and primary research work.

Submit your article before 28 February 2026.

Publishing open access with RSC journals unlochttps://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/maks the full potential of your research – bringing increased visibility, wider readership and higher citation potential to your work. As a not-for-profit organisation serving the chemical sciences community, we ensure that our article processing charge (APC) remains the most competitive of major publishers. More details can be found here and the standard APC for Materials Advances is £2,100 (+local taxes if applicable). There is a 15% RSC member and RSC open access agreement discount available (applicable to full price only). You can also use our journal finder tool to check if your institution currently has an agreement with the RSC that may entitle you to a discount of the APC.

Additional submission information

Please add a “note to the editor” in the submission form when you submit your manuscript to say that this is a submission for the themed collection polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzers.

The Editorial Office and Guest Editors reserve 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 Materials Advances.

Materials Advances is delighted to announce an open call for papers to our new themed collection focusing on amorphous materials!

If you are interested in contributing to this collection, please get in touch with the Editorial Office by email.

This themed collection is Guest Edited by:

• Professor Shuai Wei, Aarhus University
• Professor Juejun Hu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Dr Yanwen Sun, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Amorphous materials, broadly defined as condensed matter without crystalline structures, have become subjects of increasing interest in the twenty-first century. Philip W. Anderson once observed that “Randomness and disorder could result in generic properties that are utterly different from those of merely somewhat impure regular materials”. Amorphous materials exemplify this principle, inhabiting a realm of intrinsic complexity from structural disorder and often being intertwined with the problems of nonequilibrium or far-from-equilibrium behaviors. This broad category encompasses a wide range of systems including, but not limited to, oxide glasses, amorphous metals, chalcogenide and metalloids, molecular systems, polymers, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and even amorphous ice. Research in amorphous materials not only searches for new phenomena and new types of theories for “the deepest puzzle” in condensed matter science, but also is indispensable for technological innovations, spanning displays, mechanical components, electronic and photonic computing circuits, biomedicine and drug delivery vehicles, energy storage devices, and beyond.

This themed collection on Amorphous Materials invites contributions from research communities of amorphous materials across disciplines including physics, chemistry, and materials engineering. It aims to bring together diverse perspectives from various fields to highlight current frontiers and future directions in the research of amorphous materials. The scope includes:

• Various types of amorphous materials, including, not limited to, oxide and geological glasses, amorphous metals, chalcogenide and metalloids, molecular systems, polymers, MOFs, and amorphous ice and aqueous system
• Dynamics, relaxations, aging, property drifting, ultrastable glasses, rejuvenations
• Phase transitions, glass transitions, crystallizations, melting, phase switching, polyamorphism,
• Emerging experimental techniques, including in-situ, operando, atomic- and nano-scales, multiscale, ultrafast, time-resolved, pump-probe, pulse/photo-excited
• Properties including mechanical, electronic, optical, vibrational, thermodynamical, and kinetic properties
• Structure-property relationships
• Materials in extreme conditions, high pressure, high voltage, external fields, and superheating, supercooling
• Theories, models, simulations, machine learning, and novel computational methods
• Applications of amorphous solids in functional devices

We are happy to consider both review articles and primary research work. If you are interested in contributing to this collection, please get in touch with the Editorial Office.

Submit your article before 28 February 2026.

Publishing open access with RSC journals unlocks the full potential of your research – bringing increased visibility, wider readership and higher citation potential to your work. As a not-for-profit organisation serving the chemical sciences community, we ensure that our article processing charge (APC) remains the most competitive of major publishers. More details can be found here and the standard APC for Materials Advances is £2,100 (+local taxes if applicable). There is a 15% RSC member and RSC open access agreement discount available (applicable to full price only). You can also use our journal finder tool to check if your institution currently has an agreement with the RSC that may entitle you to a discount of the APC.

Additional submission information

Please add a “note to the editor” in the submission form when you submit your manuscript to say that this is a submission for the themed collection amorphous materials.

The Editorial Office and Guest Editors reserve 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 Materials Advances.

Congratulations to the winners of the Best Short Oral Presentation Prizes at the 21st International Zeolite Conference in Dalian, China!

Guangrui Chen, Jilin University

Guangrui Chen received his Ph.D. degree from Jilin University in 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Jihong Yu. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Yu’s group. His research focuses on developing new synthesis strategies and exploring catalytic applications for hierarchical zeolites and zeolite-based composites.

Qiang Zhang, Jilin University

Qiang Zhang is currently an associate professor at Jilin University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Jilin University in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Jihong Yu. After a Dingxin Scholar Postdoctoral experience with Prof. Jihong Yu, he joined the International Center of Future Science at Jilin University in 2024. His research interests include designed synthesis and crystallization mechanism of zeolite materials and the catalytic applications of zeolite and zeolite-based catalysts in C1 chemistry, lactide production, propane dehydrogenation, and low-temperature alkane oxidation.

Fang Li, East China Normal University

Peng Zhu, Dalian University of Technology

Weiyu Wang, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology,CAS

Hao Xiong, Tsinghua University

Hao Xiong received his BS degree (2019) and PhD degree (2024) in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University under the supervision of Prof. Fei Wei. He continued his postdoctoral work at Tsinghua University. His research interests are in the development of in situ low-dose imaging techniques and their application in heterogeneous catalysis.

Bo Peng, Sinopec Research Institute of Petroleum Processing Co., LTD.

Bo Peng graduated from Tsinghua University and Nanjing University with B. Eng. and M. Sc. degrees, respectively. He then worked as a Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at Lehrstuhl II für Technische Chemie, Technische Universität München, and received his doctoral title (Dr.-Ing.) in 2016 supervised by Prof. Johannes A. Lercher. Afterward, he conducted postdoctoral research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Applied Catalysis Team, Energy & Environment Directorate) and was offered a research engineer position in 2019. At the end of 2019, Bo joined SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing (RIPP) as a staff engineer in the FCC Catalysts Department. The institute re-established the Basic Research Department in 2024, where Bo acts as the deputy director responsible for the R&D activities. He is also a research fellow and is an adjunct graduate student advisor at multiple universities and research institutes. Bo is active in application-oriented fundamental research for refining technology and green carbon science, specializing in heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering. In addition, he is the executive director of RIPP’s youth academic committee, an editorial board member of the journal “Carbon and Hydrogen”, and a member of CIESC’s petrochemical engineering professional committee.

Sen Wang, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Tongrui Liu, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Tongrui Liu is currently a PhD candidate in the team of Academician Zhongmin Liu and Prof. Peng Tian at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics(DICP). His research interest is focused on the development of efficient synthesis methods for zeolites and their catalytic applications, with a specific focus on the efficient and controllable synthesis of small-pore zeolites, as well as the modulation of their properties in the fields of SCR and MTO.

Yipu Xu, China University of Petroleum

Yi-Pu Xu is a PhD student jointly affiliated with the China University of Petroleum (East China) and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. At this conference, I’ve given a short oral presentation entitled “Diffusion and Cracking Reaction Kinetics Study Based on ZSM-5@meso-SiO₂ Model Catalysts.” I’m really honored to share our work, and I think it’s incredibly meaningful to have the chance to engage in scientific discussions with researchers from around the world at my PhD stage.