Welcoming Professor Chuanlai Xu to the Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Advances Advisory Boards

12 Sep 2024

Professor Chuanlai Xu is a Distinguished Professor at Jiangnan University in China. He is a passionate educator and a highly successful entrepreneur who has transferred academic discoveries to real societal impact on food safety and drug abuse. His research focuses on the development of nanomaterials and biomaterials for antibody engineering and diagnostics. He has made three key contributions to medical and biological engineering:

1. Developing chiral nanoparticles as immune adjuvants

Nanoparticle chirality presents a captivating avenue for exploring their potential as vaccine adjuvants. These intricately structured particles offer unique opportunities to fine-tune immune responses and enhance vaccine efficacy. Professor Xu pioneered the development of chiral nanoparticles using circularly polarized light. His lab identified the key receptors on immune cells for chirality-dependent immune responses. They found that chiral nanoparticles as adjuvants substantially enhance the efficacy of vaccines and can boost the production of antibodies (1.4 times faster immune cell maturation and 44.8 times greater IgG production) compared to the conventional aluminium or Freud adjuvant.

2. Developing antibodies for small molecules

Small molecules typically do not elicit an immune response and generate antibodies on their own. Linking them to larger biomolecules, such as proteins or peptides, can effectively induce antibody production, a strategy known as hapten-carrier conjugation. Professor Xu’s lab pioneers the development of antibodies for heavy metal ions. To help fight the current opioid crisis in the US, he has developed a series of highly specific monoclonal antibodies against fentanyl and its analogues such as Thiofentanyl, Norfentanyl, Acetylfentanyl, Para-fluorofentanyl, Acrylfentanyl, 4-fluoroisobutyrfentanyl, Ocfentanyl, Carfentanil, Sufentanil, Furanylfentanyl.

3. Formulating antibody production media

Antibody quality has been a chronic problem in biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. Factors influencing antibody quality such as batch-to-batch variability, specificity, and sensitivity are well-known, but matrix mismatch between the conditions of antibody screening and antibody uses is often overlooked. Professor Xu’s lab screened cell lines that gradually adapt to the application environment during cell culture to produce monoclonal antibodies that can tolerate the complex matrices during application. Based on this innovation, he has built the world’s largest small-molecule antibody resource bank (more than 20,000 cell lines).

Overall, Professor Xu is a pioneer in developing innovative materials and methods for antibody engineering. He has published more than 500 papers in high-visibility journals including Nature, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Catalysis, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Aging, Nature Communications, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, and PNAS. Collectively, these papers have been cited ~24,000 times. He holds more than 300 issued patents and patent applications and is the recipient of many prestigious awards and fellowship recognitions, including World’s Best Scientists Ranking in Chemistry (2023), Highly Cited Researchers by Elsevier 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2015), Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (2023), Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (2023).

An interview with Chuanlai Xu

**What does it mean to you to join the Advisory Board of Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Advances?**

I am truly honored and happy to join the Advisory Board of the prestigious Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Advances, which publish high quality research at the interface of materials chemistry, biology and medicine. The unique opportunity to join the Advisory Board will enable me to represent the breadth of interests and diversity of the journals’ community more broadly, to actively promote the journals within the community and encourage potential authors to submit their best work if and when suitable, to provide feedback and advice on community perception of the journals, suggest improvements for consideration by the Editorial Board and act as a sounding board for proposed policy changes.

What is the current biggest challenge you face in your field?

Truly original research or discovery is greatly important.

For our team, can we cure neurodegenerative diseases?

Neurodegenerative diseases, in which nerve cells in the brain or nervous system lose their function and die, can cause great suffering. Millions of people each year experience pain and trauma from these diseases, the most common of which are Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Interventions can reduce or alleviate symptoms but do not provide complete relief, and so far, there is no cure and no way to completely stop or reverse the progression of the disease. Age is an important risk factor – the likelihood of being diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease increases exponentially as you get older. According to the World Health Organization, neurodegenerative diseases will become the second most common cause of death within the next two decades.

**Why do you feel that researchers should choose to publish their work in Journal of Materials Chemistry B and/or Materials Advances?**

Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Advances are truly reputable and widely read interdisciplinary forums for publishing cutting-edge research on materials, chemistry, biology, and medicine, which maximizes the visibility and impact of scientific research.

**Can you tell us about one of your latest Journal of Materials Chemistry B publication?**

In this paper, the developed LFIA is applied to the specific identification and rapid detection of niacin in nutritional dietary supplements, thus meeting the market’s demand for efficient niacin detection methods.

Immunological strip sensor for the rapid determination of niacin in dietary supplements and foods
Jialin Hu, Aihong Wu, Lingling Guo, Yongwei Feng, Liqiang Liu, Maozhong Sun, Aihua Qu, Hua Kuang, Chuanlai Xu and Liguang Xu
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2024,12, 691-700, DOI: 10.1039/D3TB02209A

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Open Call: Protein Cages as Next Generation Biomaterials

11 Sep 2024

By Hannah Kerr, Deputy Editor.

We are delighted to announce an open call for papers to our new themed collection focusing on protein cages!

Guest Editors: Kanchan Chauhan (Center of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology UNAM, Mexico), Rafael Vazquez Duhalt (CNyn-UNAM, Mexico), Sierin Lim (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Submit before 28 February 2025

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

This collection is run in connection with Symposium E8 that took place at 32^nd International Material Research Congress (IMRC) in 18-23 August 2024.

The Guest Editors hope to present recent advances in the development of the proteinaceous compartments as diverse biomaterials for various applications including:

Design, structure, and surface chemistry
Catalysis
Drug delivery
Bioimaging
Immunotherapies
Biosensors
Multimodal nanoplatform
Vaccines
Environmental remediation
Agricultural applications
Cosmetics
Wound healing
Symbiosis with other materials

We are happy to consider both review articles and primary research work. You may also be interested in this recently completed collection in Journal of Materials Chemistry B: Protein Cages.

Please note that article processing charges apply to all articles submitted to Materials Advances if, following peer-review, they are accepted for publication. Exceptions include researchers at Research4Life Group A and B countries, and those whose institutes have an existing deal that covers publication in our gold open access journals. Details of the APC and discounted rates can be found here.

Did you know?

At Materials Advances, our themed collections are built by collaboration between our Guest Editors and expert Associate Editors. Our Guest Editors guide the scope and curate the contributions in our collections but all submissions are handled through peer review by our team of resident Associate Editors. This means that as an author you receive a consistent experience, and as a reader you can trust the quality of the science being presented.

We hope you will consider contributing to this new collection.

Meet the Guest Editors:

Kanchan Chauhan

Center of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology UNAM, Mexico

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5021-3392

Rafael Vazquez Duhalt

CNyn-UNAM, Mexico

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1612-2996

Sierin Lim

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7455-6771

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. 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.

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Congratulations to the prize winners at The 40th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Drug Delivery System

11 Sep 2024

By Ash Hyde, Editorial Assistant.

Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Materials Advances, Biomaterials Science, Nanoscale, and Materials Horizons were delighted to sponsor 2 prizes each for ‘The 40th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Drug Delivery System’, which was held in Japan from July 9th – 11th.

Please join us in congratulating Takuma Yoshikawa, Takuto Toriumi, Mitsuru Ando, Heemin Chang, Seigo Kimura, Taiki Yamaguchi, Eiji Yuba, Jeong Hoon Ko, Kyung Min Park, and Anh T.N. Dao for being selected as the winners! Find out more about them below:

Takuma Yoshikawa completed his Ph.D. in engineering at Kyushu University (Japan) in 2020. During his Ph.D. training, he was a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, a research fellowship for young scientists (DC1). After the completion of his Ph.D., he worked as a technical staff at Kyushu University developing new small molecule therapeutics for chronic kidney disease as a part of a collaborative research with a pharmaceutical company in Japan. Since March 2021, he has been a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington (Advisor: Prof. Dr. Patrick S. Stayton). His main project is the development of a long-acting injectable polymeric prodrug (drugamer) for pre-exposure prophylaxis of the human immunodeficiency virus. He is leading the prodrug monomer/drugamer synthesis, developing the drugamer formulation, and performing the pharmacokinetic studies in rats and non-human primates including the quantification of drug concentration by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

Takuto Toriumi received his Ph.D. degree in Engineering from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, with support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He then joined Prof. Yukio Nagasaki’s lab at University of Tsukuba as a post-doctoral researcher. Currently, He is an assistant professor at Faculty of Materials for Energy in Shimane University. His research interest is the development of biomaterials to improve healthy life expectancy, and his experiments range from the synthesis of materials to their evaluation in cells and animals. His current main theme is design and evaluation with drug delivery systems using functional polymers with antioxidants or amino acids to safely and effectively improve exercise performance.

Seigo Kimura is an assistant professor in the Integrated Research Consortium on Chemical Sciences at Nagoya University, Japan. He specializes in drug delivery of nucleic acid-based therapeutics and earned his Ph.D. under Professor Hideyoshi Harashima at Hokkaido University, where he also completed his M.S. and B.S. His research focuses on creating lipid-based nanoparticles for targeted delivery of nucleic acids (RNA, DNA) to tissues and cells. He has been investigating the in vivo delivery mechanism of LNP, uncovering the role of endogenous factors in tissue selectivity. He is also conducting functional analysis of novel nucleic acid modalities (chemically modified mRNA, circular mRNA) using LNP for therapeutic applications, such as protein replacement and cancer vaccines.

Taiki Yamaguchi is a Doctoral Course Student at the Graduate School of Pharmacy, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences. He is sponsored by the JST SPRING scholarship, which covers the cost of living and research expenses.

His study focuses on nucleic acid and gene delivery systems using ultrasound-responsive nanobubbles. This system aims to treat cancer and central nervous system diseases.

He was awarded Seven Star Pharmacist Candidate Award 2022 from the Nagai Foundation Tokyo.

Eiji Yuba received BS degree from the Department of Applied Materials Science, Osaka Prefecture University (OPU), Japan in 2006. He received MS and PhD degrees from the Department of Applied Chemistry, OPU in 2008 and 2010, respectively. He worked as Assistant Professor of OPU, from 2010 to 2017 and as an Associate Professor from 2017 to date, in the Department of Applied Chemistry, OPU. Also, he stayed in the University of Chicago (Jeffrey Hubbell laboratory) as visiting scholar in 2019. He served as Fellow for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan from 2020 to 2023 and as Advisor to the President of Osaka Metropolitan University from 2022 to present. Recently he internally moved to the Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering as Principal Investigator. His research interests are functional polymer-based nanomaterials for biomedical applications including drug delivery, gene vectors, diagnosis and immunoengineering.

Jeong Hoon Ko (JK) received his B.S.E. in biomedical engineering and A.B. in chemistry from Duke University, and Ph.D. in chemistry from UCLA working with Professor Heather Maynard. He was a Kavli Nanoscience Institute postdoctoral scholar at Caltech with Professor Bob Grubbs, before moving to his current postdoctoral appointment with Professor Alan Jasanoff at MIT. Trained as an organic and polymer chemist, JK is interested in applying chemistry to enable new neuroimaging techniques. His current research involves brain delivery of a protein-based sensor for neurotransmitter detection using MRI, with future applications in studying the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Dao received her Master’s and PhD degrees from the School of Materials Science at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) in 2011 and 2014, respectively. From 2014 to 2017, she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher for the JST-ImPACT Project, Japan. From 2018 until 2022, she served as an Assistant Professor at Tohoku University (Japan) and was promoted to Associate Professor at Nagasaki University (Japan) in 2022. Dr. Dao has received various academic awards, including the Shiseido Female Scientist Research Grant (2021), the Tanaka Encouragement Award for Research Related to Precious Metals (2020), and a Young Scientist Fellowship at the 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany (2017). Her research focuses on nanostructures of noble metals and biopolymers for applications in biosensing, diagnostics, and cancer therapy. Dr. Dao specializes in creating highly functional materials by leveraging the components’ inherent strength and advanced fabrication techniques.

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Open call for papers – Nanogenerators

05 Sep 2024

By Geraldine Hay, Deputy Editor.

Submit your work before 10 January 2025

Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Nanoscale are pleased to announce an open call for papers for a joint cross-journal collection on nanogenerators.

Ever since the first nanogenerator was invented by Wang’s group in 2005, several important fields have been evolved. Through continuous development over the years, various kinds of nanogenerators have been introduced based on their source of energy for harvesting: mechanical energy (triboelectric and piezoelectric nanogenerators), and thermal energy (pyroelectric and thermoelectric nanogenerators). Besides, different functional materials with various properties can be used in the hybridizing and coupling of different nanogenerators for harvesting different energies simultaneously. By deploying many performance-enhancing techniques, nanogenerators can supply power to portable electronics and have greater potential for a revolution in the IoT, AI, and HMI sectors.

Guest Edited by Professor Zhong Lin Wang (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA), Professor Ya Yang (Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) and Professor Pooi See Lee (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), this Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Nanoscale collection will capture the cutting-edge innovations in nanomaterials synthesis, simulation, device fabrication, and system integration that are driving this field forward.

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

Piezoelectric materials
Ferroelectric materials
Thermoelectric materials
Triboelectric nanogenerators
Piezoelectric nanogenerators
Pyroelectric nanogenerators
Thermoelectric nanogenerators
Hybridized and coupled nanogenerators
Self-powered sensors

The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and as such inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed collection is not guaranteed.

How to submit

Articles can be submitted at any time before the deadline via our online submission system to any of the participating journals. Please see the journals’ webpages linked above for more information on their scope, standards, article types and author guidelines and for more information on how to submit.

This open call is open for submissions of:

Full Papers
Communications

All manuscripts will undergo the normal initial assessment and peer review processes, if appropriate, in line with the journal’s high standards, managed by the journal editors. Accepted manuscripts will be added to the online collection as soon as they are published and they will be featured in a regular issue of the relevant journal and collated online into the collection. Please note that peer review or acceptance are not guaranteed.

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, please submit your article directly through the journal submissions platform. Please quote the themed collection code XXNanGen24 when prompted in Step 4 of your submission in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and mention that this is in response to the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection.

If you have any questions about the collection or the submissions process, please do contact the Editorial Office at materials-rsc@rsc.org and they will be able to assist.

Your institute may have a Read & Publish agreement in place with the Royal Society of Chemistry. This means that you may be able to publish gold open access for free in all the hybrid journals we publish – maximising the visibility and impact of your article to the broadest possible audience. Your institution’s agreement may already include the article processing charge for publishing as a corresponding author. Check here to find out more and to see if your institution has an R&P deal in place.

We look forward to receiving your submission!

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Open Call: Honorary collection in memory of Professor Dr Helmut Ringsdorf

02 Sep 2024

By Rose Wedgbury Ph.D., Development Editor.

Honorary collection in memory of Professor Dr Helmut Ringsdorf

Open for Submissions until 20 March 2025

We would like to announce this Open Call for our upcoming Journal of Materials Chemistry B and C honorary collection in memory of Professor Dr Helmut Ringsdorf.

Professor Dr Helmut Ringsdorf (30 July 1929 to 20 March 2023) was a prominent German chemist who died last year on 20 March 2023 at the age of 93. During his entire scientific career, Professor Dr Ringsdorf made significant contributions to the scientific community in the scientific domains of supramolecular chemistry, polymer science, materials science, and biocompatible materials. Professor Dr Helmut Ringsdorf’s contributions have had a lasting impact on both fundamental science and practical applications, making him a highly respected figure in the scientific community. In gratitude for his scientific services, we present this special collection.

Focusing on the same scientific domain of Professor Dr Ringsdorf, this honorary themed collection aims to include the following topics:

Strategic design and architectures of new supramolecular systems and their applications in electronics, optoelectronics, robotics, electro-optics and thermotropics
Design, synthesis and characterization of new symmetric and unsymmetric columnar mesogenic systems
Charge transport mechanism in supramolecular systems. This topic will include an advancement in the electric field and temperature dependent charge transport in supramolecular, π-conjugated and polymeric LC systems
Design of new liquid crystalline materials and their dielectric, ferroelectric, and semiconducting behaviour
Polymer chemistry: Design of new polymeric systems as charge transport materials in solar cells, organic field-effect transistors and light-emitting diodes
Liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) and their applications
Design and synthesis of new organic charge transport materials
Biocompatible materials for biomedical and sensing applications; biodegradable polymers
Design of soft matter-based drug delivery systems, macromolecular drugs and polymer-based drug delivery systems

The Guest Editors welcome submissions that are within the scope of Journal of Materials Chemistry B or Journal of Materials Chemistry C and encourages potential contributors to contact the Editorial Office regarding the suitability of manuscripts for the honorary collection.

This collection is guest edited by Dr Dharmendra Pratap Singh (Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale (ULCO), France), Professor Dr Matthias Lehmann (University of Würzburg, Germany), Professor A.S. Achalkumar (IIT Guwahati, India), Professor Sandeep Kumar (Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, India).

For this Open Call, we welcome full Papers and Communications. All submissions will be subject to assessment against the journal’s usual scope and standards criteria and sent for peer review only if appropriate. Accepted articles will be published online as soon as they are ready and added to the web collection.

We sincerely hope that you will be able to contribute your latest research to this themed collection. We look forward to receiving your manuscripts.

Dr Dharmendra Pratap Singh (Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale (ULCO), France)

Dr Dharmendra Pratap Singh is an Associate Professor at the University of the Littoral Opale Coast (Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale (ULCO)), France. He is a member of the Unité de Dynamique et Structure des Matériaux Moléculaires (UDSMM) laboratory and head of the first-year cycle of Industrial Engineering at the Engineering School of the ULCO. Dr. Singh obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Physics, University of Lucknow, India in 2016. His current research activities are focused on the columnar materials, discotics, ferroelectrics, nematics and ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals along with their nano-dimensional counterparts for studying the charge transport mechanisms and their applications in energy, sensing, thermoelectricity, optoelectronics, photovoltaics and organic electronics. He has received the Young Scientist Award by the Indian Science Congress in 2017. He is the recipient of the best research award by the Indian Liquid Crystal Society in 2012 and an early career award at Cambridge University in 2013. He was also awarded by a Best Research award by the Korean Display Society (KIDS) in 2015 and the prestigious Raman-Charpak fellowship between India and France. He has published more than 100 research articles in esteemed journals and 4 book chapters. He is also the principal investigator of many projects such as PHC Star, Procore, Galilée, Alliance and Samuel de Champlain with South Korea, Hong Kong, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, Belgium and Canada, respectively. Presently, he is serving as a reviewer for more than 35 reputed journals from RSC, ACS, APS, Wiley, Elsevier, AIP, IOP, Springer, Nature, etc. He is also life-time member of the International Liquid Crystal Society, Indian Liquid Crystal Society, and affiliate member of RSC. He is also serving as “Guest Editor” for the Journal of Molecular Liquids (Elsevier).

Professor Dr Matthias Lehmann (University of Würzburg, Germany)

Matthias Lehmann is a Professor in Organic Materials – Soft Materials and Liquid Crystals – since 2011 at the University of Würzburg and held before the prestigious Heisenberg fellowship of the German Science Foundation. He studied Chemistry at the University of Mainz, and began his independent career as a Juniorprofessor at the Chemnitz University of Technology after Postdoc positions at the University of Zaragoza and the Free University of Brussels.

His research interest focus on the synthesis, self-assembly and application of complex soft matter with liquid-crystalline properties as new emerging materials. Special emphasis lays in the structural control, which is studied by comprehensive X-ray scattering methods, modelling and simulation.

Professor A.S. Achalkumar (IIT Guwahati, India)

Achalkumar Ammathnadu Sudhakar is working as a full professor at the Department of Chemistry, IIT Guwahati from 2019, where he leads the Soft Matter Research Group. He is also associated with the Centre for Sustainable Polymers at IIT Guwahati. He received his PhD from Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS) Bengaluru. He worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Molecular Nano Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK (2007 to 2009) and at RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wakoshi, Japan (2009 to 2011), before joining IIT Guwahati. He has been the recipient of Indian Liquid Crystal Society Silver Medal 2019, CRS Silver Medal 2023, Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry and Fellow of Indian Chemical Society for his research achievements. His research interests fall in the broad area of liquid crystals, supramolecular chemistry, functional polymers, organogels and self-assembled organic semiconductors. He has published around 100 papers and 3 patents. So far 7 students have obtained PhD under his guidance and He has several invited articles and hot articles to his credit. Apart from the academic work, he has also served as a Dean of Outreach Education Program at IIT Guwahati from 2021-2024. He is serving as an Associate Editor for prestigious journals – Materials Advances and Journal of Materials Chemistry C of Royal Society of Chemistry from 2023. He is the life member of Indian Liquid Crystal Society, Chemical Research Society, Society for Polymer Science in India and an invited member for American Chemical Society.

Professor Sandeep Kumar (Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, India)

Dr Sandeep Kumar is a Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India. He obtained his Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in 1986. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Israel; the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA during 1988-1994. He worked with Professor Ringsdorf at the University of Mainz, Germany during 1994–1995 prior to joining the Centre for Liquid Crystal Research, Bangalore to start a new Chemistry laboratory. In 2002, he moved to the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore from where he superannuated in November 2019 and joined NMIT.

He was a visiting Research Professor at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC during 1999-2000, at the National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan during 2008 and E.T.S. Walton Visiting Professor at the Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland during 2012-2013. He has also visited many other countries like, U.K., France, Switzerland, Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Slovenia, Poland, Italy to deliver lectures.

He has published more than 350 research papers in peer reviewed top-rated international journals; 3 Books, 13 book chapters and 10 patents. These papers have received about 12000 citations with h-index of 49 and I-10 Index of 236 (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AI_wSdAAAAAJ&hl=en).

He was awarded the inaugural LG Philips Display Mid-Career Award by the International Liquid Crystal Society in 2008; Indian Liquid Crystal Society Lifetime achievement award 2020 and Professor Shivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar Lecture Award 2023.

Professor Sandeep Kumar has made outstanding contributions in the field of Liquid Crystals with the highest number of publications on Discotic Liquid Crystals in the world. He is in the world’s top 2% scientists list, published by the Stanford-Elsevier, 2021, 2022, 2023. ScholarGPS has placed him at the 29^th position in the Top 0.05% list of all scholars worldwide in liquid crystal field.

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Order, disorder and ultrafast phenomena in functional solids

28 Aug 2024

By Rosie Hague, Editorial Assistant.

Read the new collection in Materials Advances

We are delighted to introduce our new themed collection focusing on order, disorder, and ultrafast phenomena in functional solids.

Guest Edited by Ernest Pastor (CNRS, IPR, University of Rennes, France), Hiroko Tokoro (University of Tsukuba, Japan), and Eric Collet (University of Rennes, CNRS, IPR, France)

A message from the Guest Editors

“In this collection we highlight work focusing on the implementation of advanced experimental tools to characterize defects and the development of robust theoretical frameworks to understand the role of disorder. Further advances in these areas are needed to push the boundaries of optical control of materials. However, the recent developments in laser techniques, large-scale facilities and computational capabilities offer an exciting outlook for the characterisation and control of disorder in functional solids.

We hope the research highlighted in this issue will be useful for the multiple communities seeking to understand and control disorder in solids in order to instil new functionality that powers the technologies of the future.”

A small selection of the papers are featured below:

	Coherent X-ray imaging of stochastic dynamics Arnab Sarkar and Allan S. Johnson 10.1039/D4MA00154K
	Multistep transitions in spin crossover materials without long-range spin state order from dimensional reduction Gian Ruzzi, Jace Cruddas and Benjamin J. Powell 10.1039/D3MA01057K
	Ultrafast variation of the polarized state in proton-π electron coupled ferroelectric cocrystal Phz-H₂ca Akihiro Sugisawa, Tsugumi Umanodan, Hongwu Yu, Tadahiko Ishikawa, Shin-ya Koshihara, Sachio Horiuchi and Yoichi Okimoto 10.1039/D3MA00317E

We hope you enjoy reading this themed collection!

Did you know?

At Materials Advances, our themed collections are built by collaboration between our Guest Editors and expert Associate Editors. Our Guest Editors guide the scope and curate the contributions in our collections but all submissions are handled through peer review by our team of resident Associate Editors. This means that as an author you receive a consistent experience, and as a reader you can trust the quality of the science being presented.

If you have an idea for a topical collection in your research field, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch here.

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Open call for papers: Advances in Energy Generation and Conversion Technologies

22 Aug 2024

By Dr Zifei Lu, Assistant Editor.

We are delighted to announce an open call for papers to our new themed collection on Advances in Energy Generation and Conversion Technologies, to be published in Materials Advances.

Promotional slide of 'Advances in Energy Generation and Conversion Technologies' Materials Advances themed collection with photos of Guest Editors and submission deadline (1 Dec 2024).

In recent years, there have been significant developments in energy generation and conversion technologies that emphasize eco-friendly, low-cost, and sustainable approaches. This themed collection broadly focuses on energy technologies including (but not limited to):

Advances in microbial fuel cell (MFC) design, operation, and integration with wastewater systems for simultaneous energy generation and pollutant removal.
Latest battery technology innovations, including solid-state and lithium-sulfur batteries.
Development of sustainable energy materials from natural and renewable resources, such as cellulose-derived carbon and biopolymers.
Construction of advanced materials for efficient solar energy conversion, including perovskite cells and solar windows.
Utilization of carbon-based electrocatalysts derived from waste materials in fuel cells and electrolysers.
CO₂ capture technologies for fuel and material production
Exploration of hydrogen fuel cells for clean energy in transport and stationary power applications.
Leveraging graphene, nanomaterials, and metamaterials to enhance energy conversion, storage, and transmission.

Submit before 1st December 2024

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

Materials Advances publishes quality research across the breadth of materials science. It received its 2023 impact factor of 5.2 (Journal Citation Reports 2024, Clarivate Analytics).

Please note that accepted manuscripts will be subject to an article-processing charge (APC) unless your institute has an existing agreement with the RSC that covers publications in our gold open access journals. More information about charges, discounts, and waivers are available here. Corresponding authors who are not already members of the Royal Society of Chemistry are entitled to one year’s Affiliate membership as part of their APC. Find out more about our member benefits.

This themed collection is Guest Edited by:

Shiv Singh

CSIR- Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute, India

ORCID: 0000-0002-4038-5924

Dr Shiv Singh is currently working as Scientist and Assistant Professor at CSIR-AMPRI, Bhopal, India. He received his PhD (2015) in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. He has expertise in the synthesis of novel carbon-based nanomaterials (CNF/CNT/CNP/Graphene/C-dot) for biochemical and energy applications. He did a postdoc at the Korea Institute of Materials Science, South Korea. Currently, he is working on electrode materials for bio/electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to value-added products and bio-energy, hydrogen generation and electrochemical sensors. Dr Singh also received Seal of Excellence certificates from Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions call H2020-MSCA-IF-the European Commission and DST INSPIRE faculty award. He is also a community board member of Materials Horizons and early career board member of Nano-Micro Letters.

Bo Weng
Institute of Urban Environment (CAS), China

ORCID: 0000-0001-8337-219X

Dr Bo Weng is currently a Professor at the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Fuzhou University, China, in 2018. Following his doctorate, he pursued postdoctoral research at Xiamen University and KU Leuven, supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (Individual Fellowships) and the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) Postdoctoral Fellowships. His research primarily focuses on photocatalysis and (photo)catalytic ozonation for environmental remediation. He has published 72 papers, achieving an h-index of 33 and 4709 citation (Google Scholar). As the first author or corresponding author, he has published 39 papers including Angew. Chem., Adv. Mater., and Nat. Commun. He has been invited to serve as a (Young) Editorial Board Member of NPJ Clean Water (IF 10.4), Chem (IF 19.1), Carbon Energy (IF 19.5)，EcoMat (IF 10.4), Nexus, EcoEnergy et al. He also serves as a reviewer of Nat. Water, Nat. Commun., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem., Adv. Mater. et al.

Pradip Kumar

CSIR- Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute, India

ORCID: 0000-0002-1996-3697

Dr Pradip Kumar is a Senior Scientist at CSIR-AMPRI, and an Assistant Professor at AcSIR, Bhopal, India. He received his PhD from the School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. After postdoctoral research at KAIST and KIST, Seoul, South Korea, he joined BARC, Mumbai and Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer, India as DST Inspire Faculty. His research interest focuses on 2D materials and composites for hydrogen energy storage, thermal management and EMI shielding applications.

Neeraj Dwivedi

CSIR- Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute, India

ORCID: 0000-0003-1232-438X

Dr Neeraj Dwivedi is presently a Principal Scientist at CSIR-Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute, and an Associate Professor at AcSIR, Bhopal, India. He obtained his PhD in 2013 from the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. He then worked as postdoctoral fellow between 2013 and 2019 at National University of Singapore, Singapore. His research interests include interface engineering, carbon nanocoatings, 2D materials such as graphene-based materials, MXene, metal oxides and nitrides, and polymer-composites for electronic, optoelectronic, energy, sensing and mechanical applications.

Akshay Modi

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, India

ORCID: 0000-0002-0885-6837

Dr Akshay Modi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. His academic journey includes earning a B.Tech. degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Srinagar, India, in 2013, followed by an M.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India, in 2015, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, in 2020. With a broad spectrum of research interests, Dr Modi specializes in membrane science and technology, nanostructured materials, energy devices, water reclamation, gas separations, and biomedical engineering. Dr Modi has received several awards for his outstanding contributions to research.

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Open call for papers – Engineering of soft materials for healthcare, energy and environment

14 Aug 2024

By Natalie Cotterell, Development Editor.

Engineering of soft materials for healthcare, energy and environment

Themed collection open call for papers

As we navigate the challenges of the 21st century, the engineering of soft materials will undoubtedly continue to play a crucial role in shaping a healthier, more sustainable, and resilient world. The rapid advancement of science and technology has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges in various sectors, particularly in healthcare, energy, and the environment. Among the myriad of innovations, the engineering of soft materials stands out as a field of immense potential and transformative impact.

In the realm of healthcare, soft materials have revolutionized drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, and medical devices. Their biocompatibility, flexibility, and tunable properties enable the creation of innovative solutions that improve patient outcomes and quality of life. Energy sustainability is another critical area where soft materials play a pivotal role. From flexible solar cells and energy storage systems to smart grids and energy-efficient devices, the applications are vast and varied. This is the time to explore how the unique characteristics of soft materials contribute to the development of sustainable and renewable energy technologies, paving the way for a greener future. Environmental challenges, such as pollution and resource depletion, require innovative approaches for mitigation and management. Soft materials offer promising solutions for water purification, air filtration, and waste management.

This collection, spanning the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Biomaterials Science, and Molecular Systems Design & Engineering, focuses on the engineering of soft materials for advanced science and technology in healthcare, energy, and the environment, aiming to create a better world for future generations. The scope of this collection also aligns with 6^th International Conference on Soft Materials to be held at Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain during November 17-20, 2024.

This themed collection is guest edited by Kamlendra Awasthi (MNIT Jaipur, India), Eduard Llobet Valero (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain), Anjali Awasthi (University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India and Fatima Ezahra (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain)

Submissions open until 31 March 2025

How to submit

Submissions to the journal should fit within the scope of either Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Biomaterials Science or Molecular Systems Design & Engineering and we encourage authors to select the journal they feel is best suited to their work– Please see the journal’s website for more information on the journal’s scope, standards, article types and author guidelines. All manuscripts will undergo the normal initial assessment and peer review processes, if appropriate, in line with the journal’s high standards, managed by the journal editors. Accepted manuscripts will be added to the online collection as soon as they are published and they will be featured in a regular issue of the relevant journal. Please note that peer review or acceptance are not guaranteed.

For this collection, we strongly encourage primary research in the way of Full Papers or Communications. If you are wanting to submit a review-type article, please check with the Editorial Office first for pre-approval and to avoid topic overlap.

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, please submit your article directly through the journal submissions platform. Please mention that your submission is a contribution to the Engineering of soft materials for healthcare, energy and environment collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and is in response to the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and as such inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed collection is not guaranteed.

If you have any questions about the collection or the submissions process, please do contact the Editorial Office at materialsb-rsc@rsc.org and they will be able to assist.

Potential topics/themes for the collection include but are not limited to:

SOFT MATTER: Active Matter; Biological Matter; Dynamics of Complex Fluids; Living Matter; Liquid Crystals; Self Assembly

COLLOIDS AND INTERFACE: Gels and Hydrogel; Nano and Microfluidics; Surfactants & Lipids

POLYMERIC MATERIALS: Biodegradable Polymers; Elastomers; Membranes; Polymer Interfaces; Polymer Separation and Filtration

POLYMER PHYSICS: Amorphous and Structured Polymers; Physical Properties of Soft Materials; Rheological Aspects in Polymers; Theory and Simulation of Polymers

POLYMER FOR BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS: Bio-Inspired Materials; Bioimaging; Biosensors and BioMEMS; Drug Design and Delivery; Tissue Engineering

SOFT MATERIALS FOR ELECTRONICS APPLICATIONS: Flexible Electronics and Storage; Organic Electronics; Patterned Nanostructures; Flexible Sensors

FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS: Block Copolymers Nanolithography; Functional Polymers; Nanocomposites and Hybrid Materials; Polymer Nanocomposites; Soft Nanofabrication

MATERIALS FOR ENERGY APPLICATION: Battery and Fuel Cells; Biofuels and Bioenergy; Hydrogen Generation and Storage; Gas Sensors; Solar Cells (Organic and Hybrid); Thermoelectric Materials; 2D, COF, MOF materials for Energy Conversion and Storage

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

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Materials Advances 2024 Paper Prize runner-up

01 Aug 2024

By Hannah Kerr, Deputy Editor.

Meet some of the authors

Fabrication of low-cost and flexible perovskite solar cells by slot-die coating for indoor applications

Cristina Teixeira, Rosinda Fuentes-Pineda, Luísa Andrade, Adélio Mendes and Dávid Forgács

Cristina’s research goal is to advance the lab-to-fab transition of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). During her PhD (2018-2023) at the company SAULE Technologies (Poland), in collaboration with the University of Porto (Portugal), she helped launch the world’s first pilot line for PSCs and achieved a world-record 25.4% efficiency for a flexible PSC with a graphitic back-contact under indoor lighting. In 2024, she won an MSCA postdoc fellowship and continues her work at CENIMAT|i3N at NOVA University of Lisbon. She holds one patent, three trade secrets, and five high-impact articles as 1st author.

David’s career started at Fraunhofer-ISE during his Master’s, where he researched organic photovoltaics. After authoring some high-impact research articles during his PhD in Valencia and getting hands-on experience on upscaling techniques at Opvius, he joined Saule – a back then 15 people start-up – to commercialize printed perovskite photovoltaics. He was leading the intellectual property and the indoor PV business development at the company. In early 2024 he started Nexunite Ltd. as the CEO and founder, helping to secure European grant funding for research entities, start-ups and SMEs.

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

Dávid Forgács: Indoor PV has a huge potential yet to be unlocked. It’s also exciting, as many aspects to consider are different from traditional PV, making the topic rather unique.

How do you feel about Materials Advances as a place to publish research on this topic?

Dávid Forgács: The experience has been great so far, and it seems the audience is adequate for our research

Can you share one piece of career-related advice for early career scientists?

Dávid Forgács: Make sure you research and understand the IP policy of the institution you are working for, and that you have a basic understanding of patenting. One successful application may set you up for life, and bring a lot of opportunities.

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Materials Advances 2024 Paper Prize runner-up

01 Aug 2024

By Hannah Kerr, Deputy Editor.

Meet some of the authors of the runner-up paper

Evaluation of techniques used for visualisation of hydrogel morphology and determination of pore size distributions

Imanda Jayawardena, Petri Turunen, Bruna Cambraia Garms, Alan Rowan, Simon Corrie and Lisbeth Grøndahl

	Imanda is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Science Foundation Ireland Research Fellow at the Irish Photonics Integration Centre (IPIC). Her current research focuses on developing a bone-on-a-chip device for longitudinal osteogenesis monitoring using non-invasive, label-free, non-ionising spectroscopic techniques. Imanda’s areas of research interests include, biomaterials, biophotonics, biophysics, physical chemistry, biomedical engineering, medical devices and the broader field of health and medicine. She has prior research experience in immunochemistry, microscopic techniques, mass spectroscopy assisted proteomics, and working with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles. Imanda is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) owing to her contributions towards university-level teaching.
	Dr. Bruna Cambraia Garms is a biomaterial scientist specializing in polymeric platforms for drug release systems, medical device design, and cell-material interactions. She completed her PhD at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, where she investigated new hydrogels for cancer research. Currently, as a Research Fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Monash University, Australia, Dr. Garms works on a device for cardiac solutions. Dr Garms’ research interests lie in biomaterials engineering with projects aimed at addressing critical medical challenges.
	Simon Corrie completed his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Queensland, before undertaking postdoctoral studies at the HPV Research Laboratory at the University of Washington, Seattle (Merck Company Foundation Fellowship). After returning to Australia to develop microneedle arrays for wearable immunoassays (Smart Futures Fellowship; ARC DECRA), he joined the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Monash University in 2016 to establish the Nanosensor Engineering Lab. His research interests lie in developing nano-particles and proteins for applications in bio-sensing and bio-assays with application in biomedicine and agriculture.
	Lisbeth Grøndahl obtained her PhD in chemistry from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and now holds a position as Professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland, Australia. She is a Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering and works in the interdisciplinary field of biomaterials science with a focus on development of approaches to create and comprehensively characterise functional polymeric biomaterials in the form of membranes, scaffolds, hydrogels, and nanoparticles. In 2018 she was highlighted as one of 16 women at the forefront of biointerface science research by the international journal Biointerphases.

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

Petri Turunen: I am excited of working with array of advanced microscopy techniques at my disposal to support research on biomolecular and synthetic systems.

Lisbeth Grøndahl: Providing detailed guidance on material characterisation, since that allows reproducible and impactful work to be generated, not just by my research team, but more broadly.

How do you feel about Materials Advances as a place to publish research on this topic?

Petri Turunen: I think Materials Advances is a great journal to publish materials research.

Lisbeth Grøndahl: Materials Advances provides an excellent forum for publication of research into material characterisation and setting standards and communicating sound protocols.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice for early career scientists?

Petri Turunen: My advice would be not to be afraid to do lateral career moves and there are more and more alternative career paths in science for example in core facilities.

Lisbeth Grøndahl: It is through detailed evaluation of material properties that you will make ground-breaking discoveries that will have a long-lasting legacy.

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Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Welcoming Professor Chuanlai Xu to the Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Advances Advisory Boards

An interview with Chuanlai Xu

**What does it mean to you to join the Advisory Board of Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Advances?**

What is the current biggest challenge you face in your field?

**Why do you feel that researchers should choose to publish their work in Journal of Materials Chemistry B and/or Materials Advances?**

**Can you tell us about one of your latest Journal of Materials Chemistry B publication?**

Open Call: Protein Cages as Next Generation Biomaterials

Submit before 28 February 2025

Meet the Guest Editors:

Congratulations to the prize winners at The 40th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Drug Delivery System

Open call for papers – Nanogenerators

Open Call: Honorary collection in memory of Professor Dr Helmut Ringsdorf

Honorary collection in memory of Professor Dr Helmut Ringsdorf

Open for Submissions until 20 March 2025

Order, disorder and ultrafast phenomena in functional solids

Read the new collection in Materials Advances

Open call for papers: Advances in Energy Generation and Conversion Technologies

Submit before 1st December 2024

Open call for papers – Engineering of soft materials for healthcare, energy and environment

Materials Advances 2024 Paper Prize runner-up

Meet some of the authors

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

How do you feel about Materials Advances as a place to publish research on this topic?

Can you share one piece of career-related advice for early career scientists?

Materials Advances 2024 Paper Prize runner-up

Meet some of the authors of the runner-up paper

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

How do you feel about Materials Advances as a place to publish research on this topic?

Can you share one piece of career-related advice for early career scientists?

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