Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C 10^th Anniversary Community Spotlight Series

Celebrating our wonderful community in a series of spotlights

To celebrate the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C 10^th anniversary, we have highlighted just some of the members of our community who have supported the journals over the past decade. We are pleased to have published 10 blogs showcasing different groups of our community, including Advisory and Editorial Board members, dedicated and first-time authors and outstanding reviewers.

Find all of our blogs here or check out each of our Community Spotlights individually below:

Advisory Board 1

Advisory Board 2

Dedicated Authors

Dedicated Authors 2

Outstanding Reviewers

Outstanding Reviewers 2

Editorial Board

Editorial Board 2

First time authors

First time authors 2

Thank you to our wonderful community for their support over the past decade! We hope that you enjoy reading our Community Spotlight series.

This year we are pleased to celebrate 10 years since Journal of Materials Chemistry was split into three respective journals: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, each focusing on a different aspect of materials chemistry. We are grateful to our fantastic community of authors, reviewers, Board members and readers and wanted to showcase just some of them in a series of ‘Community Spotlight’ blog articles.

In this final blog of the series, we spotlight some more of our first time authors in Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Journal of Materials Chemistry C who have published with us as corresponding authors during the anniversary year, and have had their work appear in our #MyFirstJMCA, #MyFirstJMCB or #MyFirstJMCC collections. We welcome our new community of authors and are pleased that they have chosen to publish with our journals. Find out about why they chose to publish with the Journal of Materials Chemistry family and read their first JMC publications below.

Dr Pallab Bhattacharya

Pallab Bhattacharya is a senior scientist in the Functional Material Group under Advanced Materials and Processes (AMP) Division in CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory and is an Assistant Professor at the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) at CSIR, India. He received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, India and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) and Chonbuk National University (CBNU) of South Korea.  His research interests include design and development of various energy materials includes nanomaterials, 2D materials, and composites with focus on energy storage by supercapacitors and batteries. He is a recipient of several prestigious fellowships like DST INSPIRE FACULTY award by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India and National Eligibility test (NET) fellowship from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), India. He is a member of the materials research society of India (MRSI).

What made you choose Journal of Materials Chemistry C as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

Developing materials by tuning the chemistry to influence the property and application always remains fascinating to me. Journal of Materials Chemistry C is one such journal that publishes innovative and high-quality research articles in this field. Our work was on the development of an energy storage material by an innovative approach and being published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C defines the quality of the work. Journal of Materials Chemistry C also acts very fast on the publication process which is highly helpful. Thanks to all the referees for their constructive and valuable feedback and for helping us to shape the quality of our published article.

Could you tell us a bit about your #MyFirstJMCC publication (DOI: 10.1039/D3TC02074F)?

Development of affordable green energy storage solutions is the need of the hour, and therefore, our constant effort is in function to make highly performing and affordable supercapacitors. In my first Journal of Materials Chemistry C, we introduced a controlled microwave-plasma induced single-step process to produce a N and P co-doped sheet-like multilayer graphitic carbon coupled with an ultrasmall nickel phosphate nanosphere-based composite electrode with optimized compositions to produce a remarkable capacitance with ultralong cycle life. This affordable supercapacitor works well in two different practical applications where a pulse oximeter measures readings multiple times and an LED board containing 28 red LEDs glows for several minutes on a single charge. This type of approach has been reported for the first time and thanks to the Journal of Materials Chemistry C for publishing this work. This approach may be further extended for developing different composites from different bio-wastes and transition metal precursors for energy applications.

Read Pallab’s Journal of Materials Chemistry C article:

Microwave-plasma induced one-step synthesis of Ni(PO₃)₂ nanosphere-loaded bio-waste derived N, P co-doped carbon for an asymmetric supercapacitor with prolonged life
Nisha Gupta and Pallab Bhattacharya
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023, 11, 13503-13517

Dr María J. Marín

Dr Marín graduated with a PhD in Chemistry from the University of East Anglia (UEA, UK) in 2013 under the supervision of Prof Russell. From 2013 to 2017, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at UEA and John Innes Centre; and worked as a Development Scientist at Iceni-Glycoscience. She joined UEA as a Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry in October 2017 and her research focusses on the use of nanotechnology to address biological and biomedical problems. She has extensive experience in applying nanomaterials to biosensing, diagnostics, and drug delivery, and the effective use of modern spectroscopic techniques, both for materials characterisation and device tracking and readout. She was awarded the Roscoe Gold Medal for Chemistry and the Westminster Medal as the overall winner during the 2014 SET for Britain. She is passionate about Analytical Chemistry and its impact in the employability of the undergraduate students, and this is reflected in her contribution to the Analytical modules within the School of Chemistry at UEA. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the RSC journal Analyst, sits on the Advisory Committee of “Advanced Study Course on Optical Chemical Sensors (ASCOS)” European network, is a member of the RSC Analytical Division East Anglia Regional Committee, and is the Chemistry representative in the Executive Group of the Norwich Cancer Research Network.

What made you choose Journal of Materials Chemistry B as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

When our paper that describes novel gold-based nanomaterials for applications in biology and medicine was ready for submission, Journal of Materials Chemistry B was our first choice. This is a prestigious and highly cited journal in the field of materials sciences, and we knew our paper would be fairly reviewed and, if accepted, highly cited by the scientific community. Publishing with this RSC journal has been an extremely pleasant experience. The communication was fluent, and the reviewing process was not lengthy. I was very impressed with the quality of the proofs sent by the editorial team of the journal and the overall publishing experience with Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

Could you tell us a bit about your #MyFirstJMCB publication (DOI: 10.1039/D3TB00103B)?

A major research direction in my group is the development of novel fluorescence-based molecular and nano-probes for the quantitative detection of intracellular analytes involved in disease states. Our #MyFirstJMCB publication (DOI: 10.1039/D3TB00103B) reports the first example of a two-photon gold nanoprobe (DANPY-NO@AuNPs) for the versatile intracellular detection and quantification of NO, with potential for the spatiotemporal monitoring of in vitro and in vivo NO levels. The nanoprobe, which can be synthesised in a reproducible manner and exhibits great stability when stored at room temperature, is able to selectively detect NO in solution, with a dynamic range up to 150 µM, and at pH values of biological relevance. DANPY-NO@AuNPs, which showed negligible toxicity, were able to selectively detect endogenous NO in RAW264.7γ NO^– macrophages, THP-1 human leukemic cells; and endogenous and exogenous NO in endothelial cells; and showed potential to quantify intracellular NO concentrations in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells.

Read María’s Journal of Materials Chemistry B article:

Gold nanoparticle-based two-photon fluorescent nanoprobe for monitoring intracellular nitric oxide levels
Carla Arnau del Valle, Paul Thomas, Francisco Galindo, María Paz Muñoz and María J. Marín
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023, 11, 3387-3396

Dr Biplab Maji

Dr. Biplab Maji completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, affiliated with the University of Calcutta, India, in 2007. He went on to earn his M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from IIT Kanpur, India, in 2009. In 2012, he successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis under the mentorship of Prof. Herbert Mayr at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany. Subsequently, in 2013, he embarked on a post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of Professor Hisashi Yamamoto in Japan. In 2015, he conducted research as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow, collaborating with Prof. Frank Glorious in Münster, Germany. In 2016, Dr. Maji joined the Department of Chemical Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata (IISER Kolkata), India, as an Assistant Professor and he was promoted to the position of Associate Professor in 2021. His group employs diverse catalytic strategies to tackle important chemical problems and develops new catalysts and reaction conditions with potential applications in biomass valorization, drug discovery, late-stage functionalizations, and biologically active compounds. His research team is actively involved in in-depth mechanistic studies, aimed at gaining a comprehensive understanding of how chemical reactions progress.

What made you choose Journal of Materials Chemistry A as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

JMCA is one of the prestigious journals for high-quality research on materials and their application in energy and catalysis. The peer review process was fair, and its reviewers gave constructive and valuable feedback. Our investigation included both the novel material and its catalytic application in producing demanding organic compounds. This matched well with the scope of the journal for publication. Here, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the editors and reviewers for recognizing the suitability of our research for this journal. Overall, our experience was awesome.

Could you tell us a bit about your #MyFirstJMCA publication (DOI: 10.1039/D3TA03280A)?

We have synthesized a novel material named PKPOP. Its novelty comprised a fully conjugated porous organic polymeric framework containing olefin linkage and phosphorus as core ingredients. The PKPOP was leveraged on three binding sites (P, olefin, CN) to stabilize the palladium catalyst in different reaction stages. This helped it to be exploited in synthetically challenging and stereo-selective multicomponent dicarbofunctionalization reactions on unactivated alkynes to give trans-selective tetra-substituted alkenes. Its robustness and sustainability were shown in terms of producing a broad substrate scope with wide functionalities, maintaining high yields of the products without damaging the polymeric framework after multiple recyclabilities, and its turnover number and turnover frequency.

Read Biplab’s Journal of Materials Chemistry A article:

A phosphorus-based olefin linked fully conjugated polymeric ligand for palladium-catalyzed trans-selective dicarbofunctionalization of internal alkynes
Pramod Kumar and Biplab Maji
J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023, 11, 20752-20760

Dr Cristina Fornaguera

Dr Cristina Fornaguera defended her PhD in 2015, focusing on the development of polymeric NPs to cross the BBB. After, she worked as an industrial postdoc in the startup Sagetis Biotech, where she mastered her knowledge on synthesizing polymers for the controlled delivery of drugs and nucleic acids to efficiently cross the BBB, focusing her studies on the encapsulation of therapeutic RNAs. There, she had her first contact with industrial environment, acquiring expertise on the technology transfer. She then started her own research lines, focusing on the encapsulation of RNAs in pBAE polymers. Her wide experience of pBAE NPs has been recognized, not only by the numerous publications reporting pBAEs use for different biomedical applications, but also for the funding of national and international projects; as well as private projects with international biotech, pharma, cosmetic and veterinary companies. Currently, she leads a research group focusing on the design of novel nucleic acid based nanotherapies to tackle cancer, metabolic and brain diseases.

Could you tell us a bit about your #MyFirstJMCB publication (DOI: 10.1039/D3TB00607G)?

My first Journal of Materials Chemistry B publication details the design of a novel family of poly(beta amino-ester) polymers functionalized with mannoses to achieve selective targeting. Given antigen presenting cells, namely macrophages, present a number of mannose receptors on their surface, our strategy looked for and demonstrated the selective targeting of nanoparticles to antigen presenting cells as well as their functionality, studied by the expression of the encoded mRNA. This is a proof-of-concept study demonstrating the potential of our polymers for immune modulatory applications.

What did you like most about the publication process with Journal of Materials Chemistry B?

Publishing with JMCB has been very easy and also fast, which is an important point to take into account. We received recommended revisions by reviewers that clearly demonstrated the integrity of experts in the field. Although they gave us more work, revisions helped a lot to improve our manuscript, thus contributing to the publication of a high standard of work by the journal. The process is rigorous and professional, not only from the scientific point of view, but also for the editing of the manuscript for publication.

Read Cristina’s Journal of Materials Chemistry B article:

Novel α-mannose-functionalized poly(β-amino ester) nanoparticles as mRNA vaccines with increased antigen presenting cell selectivity in the spleen
Nil González-Ríos, Margalida Artigues, Marta Guerra-Rebollo, Antoni Planas, Salvador Borrós, Magda Faijes and Cristina Fornaguera
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023, 11, 6412-6427

Dr Daniel G. Araiza

Dr. Daniel G. Araiza works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Applied Science and Technology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (ICAT-UNAM) and belongs to the National System of Researchers (SNI). In 2021, he received his PhD degree in Materials Science from the Institute of Physics of UNAM. His research has focused on the synthesis of new catalytic materials to produce clean energy sources (hydrogen) through renewable resources (alcohols), as well as in the reduction of greenhouse gases (methane and carbon dioxide). His scientific work consists of 23 published articles (9 as first and 6 as corresponding author), with more than 350 cites. He is an active member of various scientific associations such as the North American Catalan Society (NACS) and the Materials Research Society (MRS). He received the LAAAMP scholarship to perform experiments at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), provided by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr).

Could you tell us a bit about your #MyFirstJMCA publication (DOI: 10.1039/D2TA09059G)?

The publication consists of a detailed investigation of different structural, electronic, and optical properties of doped sodium ferrites (NaFeO₂), an affordable material with several applications; in this case, focusing on its CO₂ capture properties. The novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time, these doped-ferrites were studied with a combined experimental and theoretical approach.

What did you like most about the publication process with the journal?

The reviewing process helped considerably to further improve the quality of the work. Besides, the editorial’s follow-up throughout the process helped the work to be published as soon as possible.

Read Daniel’s Journal of Materials Chemistry A article:

Unveiling the different physicochemical properties of M-doped β-NaFeO₂ (where M = Ni or Cu) materials evaluated as CO₂ sorbents: a combined experimental and theoretical analysis
Nayeli Gómez-Garduño, Daniel G. Araiza, Christian A. Celaya, Jesús Muñiz and Heriberto Pfeiffer
J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023, 11, 10938-10954

Thank you to our first time authors for choosing to publish with us!

We hope you enjoyed finding out about some of new community of authors in this final 10th Anniversary Community Spotlight blog of the series.

If you missed any of our previous ‘Community Spotlight’ blog posts, check them all out here.

This year we are pleased to celebrate 10 years since Journal of Materials Chemistry was split into three respective journals: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, each focusing on a different aspect of materials chemistry. We are grateful to our fantastic community of authors, reviewers, Board members and readers and wanted to showcase just some of them in a series of ‘Community Spotlight’ blog articles.

In this blog, we spotlight some of our first time authors in Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Journal of Materials Chemistry C who have published with us as corresponding authors during the anniversary year, and have had their work appear in our #MyFirstJMCA, #MyFirstJMCB or #MyFirstJMCC collections. We welcome our new community of authors and are pleased that they have chosen to publish with our journals. Find out about what some of them had to say about their experience publishing with the journals for the first time and read their featured work below.

Dr Mohammad Taha

What made you choose Journal of Materials Chemistry A as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

I opted to submit my article to the Journal of Materials Chemistry A for several pertinent reasons. Primarily, I have a penchant for submitting to journals that have consistently served as dependable references during my research endeavours. Being a materials scientist and engineer, I have consistently found the articles in JMCA to be methodologically sound and intellectually stimulating, making it a journal I frequently consult. Furthermore, the journal’s thematic focus on innovative materials in the realms of energy and sustainability aligns seamlessly with both my current work and my envisioned future trajectory in the field.

Could you tell us a bit about your #MyFirstJMCA publication (DOI: 10.1039/D2TA09753B)?

My recent publication delves into the insulator-to-metal phase transition (IMT) observed in vanadium oxide polymorphs and how various structural strains influence it. Notably, the standard IMT behaviour manifests at 68 °C. In our research, we pioneer a dopant-free method to reduce the IMT temperature to approximately 40 °C, facilitating near-room temperature infrared modulation. This is achieved through a twofold approach: by precisely regulating the stoichiometry of the metal oxide to induce intrinsic strains, and by encasing the VO_x particles in a SiO₂ shell. The disparity in the thermal expansion coefficient between SiO₂ and VO_x exerts sufficient strain on the VO_x, leading to a significant decrease in the IMT temperature.

Read Mohammad’s Journal of Materials Chemistry A article:

Infrared modulation via near-room-temperature phase transitions of vanadium oxides & core–shell composites
Mohammad Taha, Sivacarendran Balendhran, Peter C. Sherrell, Nick Kirkwood, Dingchen Wen, Shifan Wang, Jiajun Meng, James Bullock, Kenneth B. Crozierabe and Len Sciacca
J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023,11, 7629-7638

Dr Biswanath Das

Dr. Biswanath Das is a permanent (senior) researcher and group leader at the Department of Organic Chemistry, at Stockholm University. He is an electrochemist with experience in organic-inorganic synthesis, investigation of reaction mechanisms, and electrode fabrication. His major research interest centers around finding efficient and sustainable resources for renewable energy, utilization of carbon dioxide as a C1 feedstock, and PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) remediation. Biswanath earned his bachelor’s (2007, Burdwan University) and master’s (2009, IIT Kanpur) degree in India and moved to Sweden as an Erasmus Mundus Ph.D. student and conducted Ph.D. studies (2009-2013) in Lund University under the supervision of Prof. E. Nordlander on bioinorganic chemistry. Thereafter, he joined Uppsala University as a postdoctoral fellow (2014-2016) and worked on water splitting in the group of Prof. S. Ott and A/Prof. A Thapper. In 2016, he was selected for a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship (ARC affiliated) from the School of Chemistry, UNSW, Australia. During 2016-2020, he worked on carbon dioxide electroreduction and PFAS degradation in the groups of A/Prof. S B Colbran, A/Prof. G E Ball and Prof. N Kumar before joining Stockholm University as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Em. Björn Åkermark in June 2020.

What made you choose Journal of Materials Chemistry A as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

JMCA has a good reputation for publishing research works that are novel and highly important in the field of material chemistry. The articles published in JMCA usually attract a wide audience, which is important for the visibility of the research. We (myself, Assoc. Prof. O. Verho, and Prof. B. Åkermark) did not have any second thoughts while selecting JMCA as a suitable journal for our interesting results.

Could you tell us a bit about your #MyFirstJMCA publication (DOI: 10.1039/D3TA00071K)?

Sustainable production of green hydrogen (through water electrolysis) is one of the most important research areas of this century. This article represents the first example of a bifunctional and electrochemically regenerable molecular electrode that can be used for the unperturbed production of H₂ from water at neutral pH. The special structural design of the electrode and the anchored molecular catalyst result in exciting stability and low overpotential for the electrochemical processes.

Read Biswanath’s Journal of Materials Chemistry A article:

Bifunctional and regenerable molecular electrode for water electrolysis at neutral pH
Biswanath Das, Esteban A. Toledo-Carrillo, Guoqi Li, Jonas Ståhle, Thomas Thersleff, Jianhong Chen, Lin Li, Fei Ye, Adam Slabon, Mats Göthelid, Tsu-Chien Weng, Jodie A. Yuwono, Priyank V. Kumar,   Oscar Verho, Markus D. Kärkäs, Joydeep Dutta and Björn Åkermar
J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023,11, 13331-13340

Dr Johanna Meyer

Dr. Johanna Meyer is a polymer scientist and a technical and applied chemist specialising in the development of materials for biomedical and technical approaches. After synthesizing and characterizing hydrogels, she continues to design them for various applications ranging from drug delivery and scaffold development to 3D printing of reactors. She received her PhD in 2021 from the Technical Chemistry group led by Prof. Udo Kragl at the University of Rostock (Germany) and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Technical Chemistry at the Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany).

What made you choose Journal of Materials Chemistry B as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

The RSC journals are run with significant influence of the chemistry community, upholding high editorial standards, refined reviews, and a commitment to promote diversity. The Journal of Material Science B was particularly convincing with its very good selection of publications and its general scope, making it an optimal choice for our work on 3D‑printed drug delivery systems.

What did you like most about the publication process with the journal?

The quality and constructive approach of referees has provided very valuable feedback on the manuscript and has greatly helped to improve the final published paper. I am sincerely grateful to the referees for their expert input and constructive advice.

Read Johanna’s Journal of Materials Chemistry B article:

3D printed and stimulus responsive drug delivery systems based on synthetic polyelectrolyte hydrogels manufactured via digital light processing
Sonja Vaupel, Robert Mau, Selin Kara, Hermann Seitz, Udo Kraglbc and Johanna Meyer
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023,11, 6547-6559

Dr Shwetharani R.

Dr. Shwetharani R is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Centre for Nano and Material Sciences at Jain Deemed to be University. Dr. Shwetha holds a PhD Degree in Chemistry (Material Sciences) from Jain Deemed to be University. Her research interests includes preparation and property tuning of semiconductor based nanomaterials, 2D materials MoS2, MoSe2, perovskite oxynitride/oxysulfide, MPX3 materials for H2/O2 evolution and also perovskite QDs property modification (CsPbX3), with a focus on renewable hydrogen generation and high PLQY perovskite QDs for sensing. She completed her postdoctoral stint at Shinshu University at Japan with the supervision of Prof. Kazunari Domen (2019-2020), as well as at Centre for Nano and Material Sciences at Jain Deemed to be University with the supervision of Prof. R Geetha Balakrishna (2016-2018) and has 7 years of experience in academia. She is passionate about development of new and efficient nanostructured materials for photo/electrochemical hydrogen/oxygen production. She believes in the power of collaboration and knowledge exchange to understand the problem in large scale production of hydrogen through economically viable process such as photocatalysis. She is a recipient of JAUW international fellowship from Japan and also received SERB-TARE project to conduct research with the supervision of Prof. S. Sampath at IISc, Bangalore (2020-2023).

​What made you choose Journal of Materials Chemistry C as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

Publishing in an international high standard journal is important in the academic field, JMCC is one such journal. The quality of the research papers are excellent and this inspired me to publish in JMCC. 

What did you like most about the publication process with the journal?

The publication process is fast and genuine. The reviewers are well versed in their field and suggest important comments, which drastically improves the quality of the papers. The reviewers won’t compromise on the quality of the paper and will provide comments if the paper is not up to the standards of the journal (I have received such comments before). 

Read Shwetharani’s Journal of Materials Chemistry C review:

Recent advances in ecofriendly 2D monoelemental bismuthene as an emerging material for energy, catalysis and biomedical applications
Shwetharani R., Itika Kainthla, Sumanth Dongre S., Laveena D’Souzac and R. Geetha Balakrishna
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023, 11, 6777-6799

Dr Dillip Panda

Dr. Dillip K. Panda is a Research Assistant Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Clemson University focussing on high-temperature solid-state lithium batteries and the development of various anode, cathode, and electrolyte materials for solid and liquid-based lithium-ion batteries.  He obtained his Ph.D. under the tutelage of Prof. Gordon G Wallace, Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) at the University of Wollongong, Australia.  Dr. Panda then joined Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee, Florida as a Postdoctoral Fellow where he worked on supramolecular dyad based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), MOFs, nanomaterials (both organic and Inorganic) and chemical sensors.  Then he was a UMEI PISET fellow at the University of Michigan (UMich), where he worked on synthesis, modeling and fabrication and characterization of hybrid organic- inorganic perovskite materials for high efficiency solar-to-electrical energy conversion under Prof. Bartlet and Prof. Maldonado.  More than 32 peer-reviewed publications have been published over the course of his career and three separate book chapters. Aside from serving as president of the Clemson University Postdoctoral Association from 2020 to 2022, Dr Panda received the Clemson University Distinguished Postdoctoral Award in 2022. Over the course of his diverse research career, he has developed a passion for establishing and implementing collaborative and interdisciplinary research, which is a challenging task for society’s energy needs.

What made you choose Journal of Materials Chemistry A as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

Considering my field of research (materials and energy), I am very selective about which journals I submit my papers to. Journal of Materials Chemistry A is one of my favorite journals since it always publishes cutting-edge and innovative research related to energy. Journal of Materials Chemistry A reaches a large audience with a diverse background in engineering and science. The reviewers are also critical of the work and ensure it is of high quality with novelty and significant impact on the field during the revision process. We met the scope of the journal and had our work published.

Could you tell us a bit about your #MyFirstJMCA publication (DOI: 10.1039/D3TA01366A)?

I was delighted to see my article published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A, since this article highlights Silicon oxyycarbide’s electrochemical performance as an anode material. Those interested in lithium-ion batteries and other electrochemical applications will find this paper titled ” A review of silicon oxycarbide ceramics as next generation anode materials for lithium-ion batteries and other electrochemical applications” useful for their research. In lithium-ion batteries, silicon oxycarbide ceramics with specific capacities ranging from 200 to 1300 mAh/g are promising anodes and this type of amorphous material can accommodate considerable volumetric strains, unlike crystalline silicon. In this article, we also discuss how SiOC’s electrochemical performance is affected by various factors, and how to overcome these factors. Having my first corresponding author publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry A makes me extremely happy. As such, I am incredibly proud of this work, and it is extremely special to me.

Read Dillip’s Journal of Materials Chemistry A review:

A review of silicon oxycarbide ceramics as next generation anode materials for lithium-ion batteries and other electrochemical applications
Ravindran Sujith, Jella Gangadhar, Michelle Greenough, Rajendra K. Bordiac and Dillip K. Panda
J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023, 11, 20324-20348

Thank you to our first time authors for choosing to publish with us!

We hope you enjoyed finding out about some of new community of authors. Keep an eye out for our final Community Spotlight in the series.

If you missed any of our previous ‘Community Spotlight’ blog posts, check them all out here.

This year we are pleased to celebrate 10 years since Journal of Materials Chemistry was split into three respective journals: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, each focusing on a different aspect of materials chemistry. We are grateful to our fantastic community of authors, reviewers, Board members and readers and wanted to showcase just some of them in a series of ‘Community Spotlight’ blog articles.

Next in our ‘Community Spotlight’ series, we feature some more of our dedicated authors who have supported Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B or C by publishing regularly with us over the years. Check out their interview responses below to find out what they like about publishing with the Journal of Materials Chemistry family and how their work has evolved since their first JMC publication.

Professor Eli Zysman-Colman

Eli Zysman-Colman obtained his Ph.D. from McGill University in 2003 under the supervision of Prof. David N. Harpp as an FCAR scholar, conducting research in physical organic sulfur chemistry.  He then completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one in supramolecular chemistry with Prof. Jay Siegel at the Organic Chemistry Institute, University of Zurich as an FQRNT fellow and the other in inorganic materials chemistry with Prof. Stefan Bernhard at Princeton University as a PCCM fellow.  He joined the department of chemistry at the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada as an assistant professor in 2007. In 2013, he moved to the University of St Andrews in St Andrews, UK, where he is presently Professor of Optoelectronic Materials, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a past holder of a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship.  His research program focuses on the rational design of: (I) luminophores for energy-efficient visual displays and flat panel lighting based on organic light emitting diode (OLED) and light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEEC) device architectures; (II) sensing materials employed in electrochemiluminescence; and (III) photocatalyst developing for use in organic reactions.

How has your research evolved from your first Journal of Materials Chemistry C article to your most recent publication in the journal?

I published my first J. Mater. Chem. C paper a decade ago in 2013 (10.1039/C3TC31307G). At the time, my research group was strongly focussed on the development of blue-emissive cationic iridium(III) complexes for use in light-emitting electrochemical cells. This particular study illustrated our design strategy for using triazole-based ligands about the iridium centre. Since that first paper, my group’s research interests have evolved, where we now focus considerable energy on the design and development of organic thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters for organic light-emitting diodes. In our latest publication in J. Mater. Chem. C (10.1039/D3TC02352D), my 16th in this journal, we studied the effect of nitrogen atom incorporation into orange-to-red donor-acceptor TADF emitters on their photo physical properties and their performance in OLEDs.

What made you decide to keep publishing your work with the journal over the past years?

I have found J. Mater. Chem. C to be the ideal journal to spotlight our work on photoactive materials design. The quality of the articles, complemented by an excellent editorial and reviewing process, I have always found to be excellent. I like to support RSC journals in general, given their mandate to benefit the wider chemistry community.

Professor Akon Higuchi

Akon Higuchi is an Advisory Board member for Journal of Materials Chemistry B. He received his PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1985. He was associate and full professor at Seikei University (Tokyo) until 2007. Since 2007, he became a Chair Professor at National Central University (Taiwan). He is also a visiting professor in Wenzhou Medical University. His current interests involve generation of universal human induced pluripotent stem cells, differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells on specific biomaterials, and preparation and application of lipid nanoparticles entrapped with mRNA. He is a fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and Taiwan Chemical Engineering Society. He was awarded the Sofue Memorial Award (1994), Seikei Academic Award (2003), Nanotechnology Outstanding Contribution Award (NSC, 2013), Gold Medal Award of 2021 Taiwan Innotech Expo Invention Contest (2021), and Outstanding Scientific Award of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, Asia Pacific region (TERMIS-AP, 2021).

What do you like most about Journal of Materials Chemistry B as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

JMC B is one of the top journals in the fields of biomaterial science and chemistry. Editors and reviewers in JMC B are high quality researchers. Therefore, my manuscripts are evaluated very fairly. The comments by reviewers and editors are very useful for my future research.

What made you decide to keep publishing your work with the journal over the past years?

I had a great influence and an impact from my previous supervisor in England (Dr RFP Stepto, UMIST). He respected RSC. Therefore, it was my honor for me to publish my research in RSC journals starting from Faraday from my young carrier. Now my research mainly focuses on biomaterials and therefore, I keep publishing my research in JMC B.

Professor Tharamani Nagaiah

Tharamani C. Nagaiah is an Associate Professor and Head, Department of Chemistry at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar. She holds a PhD degree from Bangalore University and completed postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Saskatchewan, Canada and AvH postdoctoral fellowship at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. Her research interests include design and development of various carbonaceous materials, nanomaterials, molecular catalyst with focus on energy conversion and storage, biosensors and in-depth fundamental analysis of the newly designed electrocatalysts towards fuel cells and batteries by various electrochemical, spectroscopic, microscopic and scanning probe techniques (SECM). She is a recipient of several prestigious fellowships like Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship, Germany and Ramanujan Fellowship by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) admitted through the “Leaders in the field” scheme as an emerging talent in India and also an elected Fellow of Indian Chemical Society. She is a recipient of CRSI-Bronze Medal 2023 from the Chemical Research Society of India and Silver Medal of CRS 2023 from the society Chirantan Rasayan Sanstha, recently she has been awarded the ECSI Metrohm National Award 2023 from Electrochemical Society of India, A.V. Rama Rao prize for Women 2024 from Chemical Research Society of India. She is an Editorial Board Member of the Journal Electrocatalysis.

What made you decide to keep publishing your work with the journal over the past years?

I am very selective in submitting manuscript to  journals. Journal of Materials Chemistry A is one among them which publishes  high quality and cutting-edge research articles in the field of Materials Chemistry and Energy. Our work is well aligned with the scope of the journal and being published/publishing in Journal of Materials Chemistry A defines the quality of our work. Thanks to the referees for the constructive and valuable feedback on the work which has always helped us in shaping up the quality of our published articles.

Which of your Journal of Materials Chemistry A publications would you say you are most proud of and why?

I am proud of all my research articles published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A, since each article has a different concept and novelty. However, the work on “Nitrogen containing carbon spheres as an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction:Microelectrochemical investigation and visualization” is very special one. This work focused on the development of oxygen reduction reaction catalyst and its selectivity to H₂O conversion was studied in depth by microelectrochemical approach using ultra-micro-electrode. This is my first publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry A as an independent researcher. Therefore it is very special to me and I am very proud of this work.

Professor Jie Zheng

Jie Zheng is a Professor of Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering at the University of Akron. He earned his PhD from the University of Washington in 2005 and subsequently conducted 2-years postgraduate studies at the National Cancer Institute, NIH. He then joined the University of Akron since 2007. His research lab specializes in the development of advanced bio-inspired, bio-functional, and bio-mimetic soft materials for engineering and biomedical applications by combining machine-learning models, molecular simulations, and bio-related experiments. Zheng has received prestigious accolades throughout his career, including the NSF CAREER Award (2010), 3M Non-Tenure Faculty Award (2008), and Anton Award from the National Resource for Biomedical Supercomputing (2010), and has also been recognized multiple times as Top 2% of researchers worldwide in the field of Chemical Engineering and was elected an fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry in 2023. Zheng is author of 280+ journal papers, with a total citation of 20000+ times and an h-index of 75.

What made you decide to keep publishing your work with the journal over the past years?

Over the years, my decision to continue publishing our work in the Journal of Materials Chemistry (JMC) has been driven by a series of significant milestones and a profound sense of belonging to the journal scientific community. It all began in 2014 when JMC expanded to three companion journals. We started on this journey by publishing our first paper in JMCB, which was chosen for the journal’s cover page, spotlighting our research on antifouling materials. Since then, we have published 31 papers in the JMC family, with 10 papers in JMCB, 6 invited reviews, 19 cover features, and 8 hot papers. These publications have predominantly focused on our research on amyloid diseases, smart hydrogels, and biomaterials. What truly sets JMC apart for me is the remarkable growth I have witnessed in our research journey alongside this journal. In 2017, I joined the Advisory Board of JMC B, where I have seen the journal commitment to accelerating scientific dissemination through a rigorous and equitable review process. Additionally, their dedication to recognizing and nurturing young, talented investigators is commendable. I strongly believe that the JMC family will persist as the flagship journals for disseminating high-impact research to the global scientific community.

How has your research evolved from your first Journal of Materials Chemistry B article to your most recent publication in the journal?

Our research has evolved significantly since our first publication in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B (DOI: 10.1039/c4tb00253a) in 2014, which focused on the binding properties of PEG antifouling materials and proteins, earning a place on the JMCB cover page. Subsequently, we expanded our research from antifouling materials to smart functional polymers and hydrogels. These materials were designed and synthesized to possess high mechanical properties and a wide range of functionalities, including self-recovery, self-healing, biocompatibility, mechanoresponse, freezing tolerance, conductivity, and interfacial adhesion, tailored for diverse applications. Moreover, our research has stretched even further, encompassing the investigation of native disease-related amyloid proteins linked to various neurodegenerative diseases. We combine a variety of biophysical techniques and computational approaches to examine the molecular mechanisms of protein misfolding, aggregation, and toxicity, design and discover novel molecules serving as amyloid inhibitors, develop multi-targeting biosensors for detecting amyloid proteins, and investigate the molecular links and spreading mechanisms between different diseases. Our findings have been published and highlighted in the JMC journal family, a testament to the growth and evolution of both our research and the JMC journal community.

Professor Paolo Samorì 

Prof. Paolo Samorì is Distinguished Professor at the Université de Strasbourg, Director of the Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS) and Director of the Nanochemistry Laboratory and he is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He has obtained a Laurea (master’s degree) in Industrial Chemistry at University of Bologna in 1995. In 2000, he has received his PhD in Chemistry from the Humboldt University of Berlin (Prof. J. P. Rabe). He has been permanent research scientist at Istituto per la Sintesi Organica e la Fotoreattività of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Bologna from 2001 to 2008 and Visiting Professor at ISIS from 2003 to 2008. He has published 440+ papers on nanochemistry, supramolecular sciences, materials chemistry, and scanning probe microscopies with a specific focus on graphene and other 2D materials as well as functional organic/polymeric and hybrid nanomaterials for application in optoelectronics, energy and sensing.

What do you like most about Journal of Materials Chemistry C as a place to publish your latest materials chemistry research?

It is a perfect outlet where interdisciplinary works are published since it covers the broadest spectra from the making of innovative materials, to their multiscale characterization, to their application via the development of high-performance devices. By covering such a widest field of chemistry it has been instrumental to the interdisciplinary realm of materials science that has witnessed major steps forward during the last three decades.

How has your research evolved from your first Journal of Materials Chemistry C article to your most recent publication in the journal?

Materials chemistry has shaped itself over the years as a technologically relevant discipline by tackling the major challenge of enhancing the chemical and structural complexity of materials to reach more sophisticated and reliable functions. The chemical approach to materials science has indeed been key to trace such a relevant path.

Thank you to our dedicated authors for their support in publishing regularly with the Journal of Materials Chemistry family of journals over the years.

We hope you enjoyed finding out more about just some of our dedicated authors. Keep an eye out for our next ‘Community Spotlight’!

If you missed any of our previous ‘Community Spotlight’ blog posts, check them all out here.

This year we are pleased to celebrate 10 years since Journal of Materials Chemistry was split into three respective journals: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, each focusing on a different aspect of materials chemistry. We are grateful to our fantastic community of authors, reviewers, Board members and readers and wanted to showcase just some of them in a series of ‘Community Spotlight’ blog articles.

Next in our ‘Community Spotlight’ series, we feature some of our wonderful Editorial Board members who have supported Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B or C over the years through guiding the growth and development of the journal and/or actively handling papers in their Associate Editor roles. Check out their interview responses below to find out what they like about being on the Editorial Board and how they think the field of materials chemistry will develop in the next 10 years.

Professor Jessica Winter

Jessica Winter is an Associate Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry B. She is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Past Chair of the Chemical Engineering Technical Operating Council (CTOC) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Innovative Visual Rehabilitation at the Boston VA Hospital in 2006. Her research interests include nanoparticles for cancer imaging, diagnostics, and drug delivery; and cell migration in the brain tumor microenvironment. She is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Core Quantum Technologies, a company commercializing nanoparticle reagents for cancer diagnostics. She was named TechColumbus Innovator of the Year, Columbus Business First 40 under 40, and Columbus Business First 20 People to Know in Technology. She has received the American Physical Society (APS) Five Sigma Award, American Chemical Society (ACS) Rising Star Award and the Engineering DesignNews Golden Mouse Trap Rising Star Award; she was named to Top 25 STEM professors in Ohio; and is a fellow of the AIChE, BMES, AAAS, AIMBE, the RSC, and senior member of the IEEE.

Where do you see the materials chemistry field in the next 10 years?

There has been a dramatic rise in a focus on sustainability in the last few years that will continue to grow. This includes syntheses derived from natural materials, syntheses that reduce energy use, and elimination of toxic solvents and catalysts. There is increasing interest in the materials life cycle. Can we make materials degradable, can we recycle materials, can we make them self-healing to improve their lifetime? I work in the nanotechnology field, and there is substantial interest in ecotoxicology. How do these materials affect plant and animal ecosystems that they might enter through run-off or waste disposal. How do these materials modulate gut and soil microbiomes? It is an exciting time to be working in materials chemistry as we think about how to realize new materials while minimizing their environmental impacts.

As an Associate Editor, do you have any top tips for authors preparing their manuscript?

The most important thing for authors to convey is the novelty of their work. Authors know their research better than anyone. Try to summarize the key findings and the impact of the work and include this in the cover letter, abstract, and conclusions. When possible, try to compare work to the current state of the art to provide context for the innovation.

Professor Achalkumar Ammathnadu Sudhakar

Achalkumar Ammathnadu Sudhakar is an Associate Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry C. He 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, 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 for his research achievements. He has also been inducted as a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and Indian Chemical Society (FICS) in 2023. His research interests fall in the broad area of liquid crystals, supramolecular chemistry, green chemistry, functional polymers, organogels and self-assembled organic semiconductors. He has published around 90 papers and 3 patents. He has several invited articles and hot articles to his credit. He is also serving as a Dean of Outreach Education Program at IIT Guwahati to popularise science and maths among school children. He is the life member of Indian Liquid Crystal Society, Chemical Research Society and Society for Polymer Science in India.

What do you think of Journal of Materials Chemistry C as a place to publish impactful materials chemistry research?

My independent research career was started by publishing my first paper in Journal of Materials Chemistry C, which at that time gave a platform to showcase my research. From last 10 years, I am witnessing the continuous rise of the journal, which has become the best in business for material chemists.

Where do you see the materials chemistry field in the next 10 years?

Sky is the limit ! – Materials Chemistry is such a vibrant and creative field, where you will see the molecule to do function. Utilization of experience, intuition, limitations, usefulness, practicality, creativity, curiosity, serendipity and now artificial intelligence – all these make the journey itself so adventurous and rewarding to the mankind,  if the goal is reached, then it will be an icing on cake.

Professor Zhen Zhou

Zhen Zhou is an Associate Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry A. He earned both his B.S. (in Applied Chemistry in 1994) and Ph.D. (in Inorganic Chemistry in 1999) degrees from Nankai University, China. He joined the faculty at Nankai University as a lecturer in 1999. Two years later, he began to work as a postdoctoral fellow in Nagoya University, Japan. In 2005, he returned to Nankai University as an associate professor and became a full professor in 2011. In 2021, he moved to Zhengzhou University, China as a Distinguished Professor, and he is now Dean of the School of Chemical Engineering. His main research interest lies in the integration of high-throughput computations, experiments and machine learning for energy storage and conversion.

What do you think of Journal of Materials Chemistry A as a place to publish impactful materials chemistry research?

Journal of Materials Chemistry A is a prestigious journal that publishes high quality studies across all fields of materials chemistry, with a focus on applications in energy and sustainability. I think that Journal of Materials Chemistry A is a great place to publish your impactful materials chemistry research, as it provides a wide exposure, recognition, and dissemination of your work. Nevertheless, it is also very selective and competitive, so you need to ensure that your research is novel, significant, and well-written to have a chance of acceptance. Despite being a general journal of materials chemistry, Journal of Materials Chemistry A welcomes submissions on theoretical work, computational simulations, and machine learning, and considers them equally.

Where do you see the materials chemistry field in the next 10 years?

Materials chemistry is a dynamic and interdisciplinary field. In the next 10 years, I think that materials chemistry will continue to grow and evolve, driven by the challenges and opportunities faced by mankind. For example, addressing global issues such as hunger, health, energy, climate change, and pollution by developing new materials for renewable energy, clean water, food security, disease diagnosis and treatment, waste management, and green chemistry.

Materials chemistry will also contribute to the advancement of digital technologies and smart devices by creating new materials for data storage, communication, computation, sensing, and display. And it will embrace new paradigms and methods for materials discovery and design, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), computational simulations, and high-throughput screening. These tools will help accelerate the innovation process and optimize the performance and functionality of materials.

Materials chemistry will also foster more collaboration and integration across disciplines and sectors, such as physics, biology, engineering, medicine, and industry. This will lead to the emergence of new fields and applications of materials chemistry, such as biointerfaces, biomimetics, nanomedicine, smart textiles, and wearable devices.

Materials chemistry is a fascinating and exciting field that has a lot of potential to make a positive difference in the world.

Professor Yana Vaynzof

Prof. Dr. Yana Vaynzof is an Associate Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry C. She is the Chair for Emerging Electronic Technologies at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany) and a Director at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden. She received a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Israel) in 2006 and a M. Sc. In Electrical Engineering from Princeton University (USA) in 2008. In 2011, she received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge (UK). Yana was a postdoctoral research associate at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (UK) and an assistant professor at Heidelberg University (Germany) from 2014 to 2019. Yana Vaynzof is the recipient of a number of fellowships and awards, including the ERC Starting Grant, ERC Consolidator Grant, Gordon Wu Fellowship, Henry Kressel Fellowship, Fulbright-Cottrell Award and the Walter Kalkhof-Rose Memorial Prize. Her research interests lie in the field of emerging photovoltaics focusing on the study of material and device physics of organic, quantum dot and perovskite solar cells.

What do you like most about being on the Editorial Board for Journal of Materials Chemistry C?

One of the things I like most is the opportunity to stay connected to excellent science in topics that do not directly fall into my own research activities. It allows me to see where the field of materials chemistry is evolving and how adjacent fields are developing.

 Where do you see the materials chemistry field in the next 10 years?

Progress in materials chemistry is instrumental to tackling global challenges such as climate change. I believe that in the next decade the focus of the materials chemistry field will shift more and more towards the holistic inclusion of sustainability considerations into the design, synthesis, processing and end-of-life of materials. These could range from the development of new concepts in green chemistry to new approaches to materials reuse and recycling and much more.

As an Associate Editor, do you have any top tips for authors preparing their manuscript?

My top recommendation to authors preparing their manuscript for submission to JMC C is to read articles already published in the journal in order to gain better insights into its scope, impact and style. This will also help you realise how to present your findings in a scholarly way, how to make good and informative figures as well as correctly choose the title for your manuscript.

Professor Claus Feldmann

Claus Feldmann is an Editorial Board member of Journal of Materials Chemistry B. He studied chemistry (University of Bonn) and did his doctorate in solid-state chemistry under Martin Jansen. After post-doctoral studies with Hans-Georg von Schnering (Max Planck Institute of Solid-State Research, Stuttgart), he moved to industry (Philips Research Laboratories, Aachen/Eindhoven), where he was engaged in luminescent materials. Simultaneously, he habilitated at the RWTH Aachen on nanomaterials. In 2003, he was appointed at the University of Karlsruhe, the present Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). His research interests address solid-state chemistry and functional nanomaterials, ranging from ionic-liquid-based syntheses via base-metal nanoparticles and hollow nanospheres to nanocarriers for multimodal imaging and drug delivery.

What do you like most about being on the Editorial Board for Journal of Materials Chemistry B?

As a member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Materials Chemistry B, I am fascinated by the variety of publications in the interdisciplinary area between materials and biomedical properties. It is incredible how precisely materials and material properties can be tuned today (compared to 10 years ago) and yet the complexity of human action is still orders of magnitude less than what nature has produced in biology. For me as a scientist, there is still so much to be learned.

Could you provide a brief summary of your most recent Journal of Materials Chemistry B publication?

In oncology, nanocarriers can be expected to make significant progress in achieving high efficacy at the tumour site with low side effects, avoiding drug resistance, and targeting metastases early in addition to the primary tumour. Suitable nanocarriers should contain a drug load as high as possible. They should be biodegradable and – similar to current therapy schemes with dissolved drugs – a cocktail of chemotherapeutics should be applied also with nanocarriers. To this concern, we have developed the concept of inorganic-organic hybrid nanoparticles (IOH-NPs) together with partners in biology and medicine. IOH-NPs are predominately characterized by a synthesis in water, an uncomplex composition and an unprecedented drug load. In this regard, we recently presented theranostic IOH-NPs with a cocktail of chemotherapeutic and cytostatic drugs and a drug load of 71-82 % of the total nanocarrier mass. Cell tests with different tumour cell lines, spheroids and 3D cell cultures prove efficient drug release, high efficacy and a strong synergistic effect of the drug cocktail.

(M. Khorenko, A. Meschkov, J. Napp, J. Pfeifer, J. Stier, F. Alves, U. Schepers, C. Feldmann, J. Mater. Chem. B 2023, 11, 3635-3649)

Thank you to all of our dedicated Editorial Board members for their support of the Journal of Materials Chemistry family of journals over the years.

We hope you enjoyed finding out more about some of our Editorial Board members. Keep an eye out for our next ‘Community Spotlight’!

If you missed any of our previous ‘Community Spotlight’ blog posts, check them all out here.

This year we are pleased to celebrate 10 years since Journal of Materials Chemistry was split into three respective journals: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, each focusing on a different aspect of materials chemistry. We are grateful to our fantastic community of authors, reviewers, Board members and readers and wanted to showcase just some of them in a series of ‘Community Spotlight’ blog articles.

Next in our ‘Community Spotlight’ series, we feature some more of our outstanding peer reviewers who have gone above and beyond in supporting the quality, timely and rigorous peer review model for Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B or C over the years. Check out their interview responses below to find out how reviewing has helped in the preparation of their own manuscripts and to discover their top advice for new reviewers and authors.

Dr Sijie Chen

Dr. Sijie Chen received her BSc in Biology from Wuhan University in 2009 and PhD in Bioengineering from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 2013, under the supervision of Prof Ben Zhong Tang. She worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at HKUST and then as an Endeavour Fellow at the University of Melbourne and as a visiting scientist at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. She joined Prof Ana Teixeira’s group as a Postdoc in the Division of Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics in Karolinska Institutet since late 2015. Dr. Chen was recruited as an Assistant Professor at Ming Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine, Karolinska Institutet in 2017. She will be moving to the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) this year. Dr. Chen is working on fluorescent sensors and fluorescence imaging. Her current research interests focus on the development of new luminescent materials for mechanobiology studies and regenerative medicine studies.

What encouraged you to become a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry B?

As a researcher who publishes papers every year, I usually receive feedback from 2-5 reviewers for each of my papers. I am grateful for the time and effort that reviewers invest in providing constructive suggestions, which help to improve the quality of our research and ensure that the scientific community runs smoothly. I also have some of my own papers published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, which has motivated me to contribute my own knowledge and experience to the journal as a reviewer. I am excited to have the opportunity to give back to the scientific community and contribute to the dissemination of high-quality research.

What would you recommend to new reviewers to ensure their report is helpful?

The primary goal of the review process is to provide authors with constructive feedback that can help them improve their work. When reviewing a manuscript, it is important to consider several key factors. These can include the significance and novelty of the work, the design of the project, the clarity of expression, and any errors that have been identified.In providing feedback, it is helpful to be as specific and detailed as possible. For instance, if you question the novelty of the work, you might provide references or examples to support your concerns. Similarly, if you identify language or writing issues, it can be useful to list specific examples or offer suggestions for improvement.

Dr Marcus Johns

Dr. Marcus Johns is an analytical materials scientist who focuses his research on developing new analytical techniques. These use light to directly investigate the intermolecular structures of polymers and the interparticle interactions of nanomaterials. This research direction emerged from his curiosity about the background fluorescence observed from bio-based scaffolds for tissue engineering. He completed his PhD at the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies, University of Bath, UK in 2017 and is currently a Mitacs Accelerate postdoctoral research fellow in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Marcus has been recognized as an outstanding reviewer for the Journal of Materials Chemistry B in both 2020 and 2021.

What would you recommend to new reviewers to ensure their report is helpful?

My top recommendation is to always provide constructive comments, regardless of your opinion on the manuscript’s quality. If you believe the paper needs significant revisions or should be rejected, explain your reasoning and suggest experiments or alternative theories for the authors to consider. Conversely, even if you initially think that the manuscript is flawless, there may still be areas that need clarification or references that the authors might have missed. Additionally, don’t hesitate to propose new research directions based on the manuscript’s results and your expertise, or ask questions that require further investigation (clarify that you don’t expect answers in the current manuscript). As reviewers, our role extends beyond ensuring scientific soundness; we also support researchers in developing new avenues of inquiry and expanding humanity’s knowledge.

Has being a reviewer affected how you approach the preparation of your recent manuscripts?

Yes, absolutely! First and foremost, I ensure that I prepare the manuscript to the highest possible standard before submission, even if it means taking an extra month. As a reviewer, it becomes challenging to focus solely on the scientific content when the manuscript’s structure is poor or important details are missing. The initial time invested in enhancing the manuscript’s quality is always less than going through multiple review rounds due to confusion or missing information. Similarly, I dedicate time to ensure that the supplementary information for the manuscript includes all relevant data, enabling readers to draw their own conclusions. As a reviewer, there’s nothing more frustrating than being unable to assess the reasonability of a conclusion due to incomplete data. Lastly, I’ve made an effort to educate myself on statistical analysis and ensure its correct application. I often encounter incorrect claims of significance as a reviewer, where the analysis has been repeated but not reproduced, for example.

Professor Jennifer Schaefer

Jennifer L. Schaefer is the Sheehan Family Collegiate Professor of Engineering and the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Her research group investigates materials chemistry phenomena relevant for sustainable technologies, including electrochemical energy storage devices. Prior to joining the University of Notre Dame in 2015, she was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She earned a PhD in chemical engineering at Cornell University, and prior degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering from Widener University.

What encouraged you to become a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry A?

The peer-reviewed publication system requires both authors and reviewers. As leader of a research group that submits manuscripts, I feel that it is my duty to also review manuscripts. I strive to provide at least the number of manuscript reviews in a given year as a reviewer as I have received as an author. Being a reviewer for manuscripts for non-profit society journals is a way that I serve the global scientific community.

What would you recommend to new reviewers to ensure their report is helpful?

A helpful review considers both the big picture and the details. For manuscripts under review for Journal of Materials Chemistry A, I consider whether the report advances our knowledge of materials chemistry in the application of relevance in light of prior published work. I also look at the details of how the experiments were conducted and compare the displayed data with the claims in the discussion. When claims made in the manuscript do not align with the data presented, then it is constructive to explain in the review exactly what is not aligned. Specific feedback helps authors to more fully understand the reviewer’s perspective and to more quickly identify how to improve their manuscript.

Dr Uroš Lačnjevac

Dr Uroš Lačnjevac is a Full Research Professor at the Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, University of Belgrade, Serbia. He earned his BSc/MSc degree (2005) in electrochemistry from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, and his PhD (2010) in energy conversion from the University of Belgrade. His research interests are related to the synthesis of nanostructured materials and composite coatings for electrocatalysis applications, with a focus on water electrolysis. He has published 3 international book chapters and more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed international journals. He has served as a referee for 70 scientific journals and completed more than 430 review reports. For his peer review work, he received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from Journal of Materials Chemistry A in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

What would you recommend to new reviewers to ensure their report is helpful?

As reviewers, your role is crucial as the bridge between the editor and the authors. It is essential to keep in mind that your responsibility extends in two directions. Firstly, you should assist the editor in making the best decision for the journal’s interests. Secondly, you should help the authors improve their manuscript, irrespective of whether your recommendation is to reject or accept it. When providing your report, strive to be constructive, specific, and comprehensive. This approach demonstrates respect for both the authors and the journal. Remember to maintain a polite tone while remaining firm and persistent in upholding high standards.

Has being a reviewer affected how you approach the preparation of your recent manuscripts?

Being a reviewer, particularly for esteemed journals like Journal of Materials Chemistry A, has had a transformative impact on my approach to manuscript preparation. It represents a pivotal moment for me, especially as I conduct scientific research in a country with its unique set of challenges. Witnessing how my comments, suggestions, and interpretations can significantly enhance the manuscripts of top research groups has instilled a newfound value in my own knowledge and experience. This realization serves as a powerful motivation, boosting my confidence to strive for success in publishing my own work in high-impact journals. Moreover, reviewing the work of other researchers has been a rich source of ideas, feedback, and insights that I now apply to my own projects and writing process. It has made me more mindful of certain aspects, such as clarity, organization, and addressing potential questions or concerns that reviewers may have. Furthermore, experiencing constructive criticism as a reviewer has deepened my appreciation for the importance of thorough revisions and ensuring the overall quality of my own work prior to submission.

Prof. Sheng-Heng Chung

Highly recommended Plan B!

Sheng-Heng Chung received his B.S. in Resource Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering from National Cheng Kung University and his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. He joined the Ph.D. program in Materials Science and Engineering and worked as a research associate with Professor Arumugam Manthiram at the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, he is an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at National Cheng Kung University. His current research focuses on electrochemical conversion and storage technology.

What do you like most about being a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry A?

I have been invited by more than 100 journals and thousands of peer review papers. The peer-review invitation from Journal of Materials Chemistry A always shows high-quality manuscripts with novelty, solid science, and great performance progresses. It is a very nice experience to support these high-standard manuscripts with detailed reviewing and data checking. Moreover, as a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry A, I am always assigned with the papers in my research fields, which means that the authors’ manuscript would be reviewed and polished by researchers in the same and similar research filed. I believe this is important to improve the quality of publications and to help authors.

What encouraged you to become a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry A?

It was a chance that I received a reviewer comment from Journal of Materials Chemistry A, in which the reviewer encourages me to revise my paper with specific suggestions rather than subjective questioning. This encourages me to optimize my reviewer report to a summary with a specific general comment followed by detailed comments supported by my suggestion to address the comment or make improvements. In other words, borrowing from a previous reviewer from Journal of Materials Chemistry A, I believe that the role of a reviewer is to improve the quality of the journal’s publication by offering constructive suggestions for high-level research.

Dr Jianxun Ding

Dr. Jianxun Ding is a professor at Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CIAC, CAS), P. R. China. Dr. Ding received his B.S. degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 2007 and obtained his Ph.D. at CIAC, CAS, in 2013 under the supervision of Dr. Xuesi Chen. From 2017 to 2019, Dr. Ding worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Dr. Omid C. Farokhzad and Dr. Jinjun Shi from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on synthesizing biodegradable bioactive polymers, developing bioresponsive polymer platforms for controlled drug delivery, exploiting polymer-based adjuvants for immunotherapy, and preparing polymer scaffolds for regenerative medicine. Dr. Ding has published more than 150 academic articles in mainstream journals, including Advanced Materials, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, and so forth, with over 13,000 citations. Moreover, Dr. Ding has applied for over 70 patents in China, of which over 60 have been authorized. Meanwhile, owing to his significant accomplishments, Dr. Ding has won more than 10 awards, such as the Natural Science Award of Jilin Province, the Science and Technology Progress Award of Jilin Province, the Chinese Chemical Society Polymer Young Scholar Award, and Young Scholar Award of Jilin Province

What do you like most about being a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry B?

Ever since I served as a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry B, what impresses me most is the accuracy and efficiency with which the Editorial Office executes manuscript decisions. What’s more, it offers me the opportunity to assist authors in advancing the publication of excellent, valuable studies while also giving me the authority to eliminate research of low quality and lacking rigor or innovation. When you are personally involved in this process, you will be delighted and proud of the gradual growth of the journal.

Do you have any advice to first-time authors seeking publication in the journal?

A meaningful study should meet the following standards: 1) Innovation is the most critical issue. The authors should put forward a brand-new viewpoint based on their experimental data, which will make the reviewers pay more attention to the manuscript; 2) Journal of Materials Chemistry B is a representative materials chemistry journal in which the manuscript published should include the successful synthesis of materials and the application prospect brought by material property. This requires the authors to pay attention to the intersection of multidisciplinary during the research process, further enhancing the practical significance of this study; 3) By paying attention to the details, the authors should standardize all documents submitted with a uniformly high standard, including but not limited to the main text and supporting information.

What has been your biggest learning point from reviewing?

The reviewer looks at the manuscript from a completely different perspective from the authors. When reviewing a manuscript, readability will severely affect the reviewer’s attitude toward the manuscript, which is always overlooked in the writing process. In addition, reviewing the manuscript in related research fields inspires my insights and perspectives on the future research direction. Overall, becoming the reviewer of Journal of Materials Chemistry B is an excellent opportunity to examine myself, and this has undoubtedly increased my rigor in dealing with scientific problems and my sensitivity to identifying critical points during my daily research.

Thank you to all of our outstanding and dedicated reviewers for their support of the Journal of Materials Chemistry family of journals over the years.

We hope you enjoyed finding out more about some of our reviewers. Keep an eye out for our next ‘Community Spotlight’!

If you missed any of our previous ‘Community Spotlight’ blog posts, check them all out here.

This year we are pleased to celebrate 10 years since Journal of Materials Chemistry was split into three respective journals: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, each focusing on a different aspect of materials chemistry. We are grateful to our fantastic community of authors, reviewers, Board members and readers and wanted to showcase just some of them in a series of ‘Community Spotlight’ blog articles.

Next in our ‘Community Spotlight’ series, we feature some of our outstanding peer reviewers who have gone above and beyond in supporting the quality, timely and rigorous peer review model for Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B or C over the years. Check out their interview responses below to find out why they like reviewing for the journals and to discover their top advice for first-time authors and reviewers.

Dr Ady Suwardi

Ady Suwardi received his PhD from University of Cambridge, UK, and B.Eng from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is currently a group leader in A*STAR and also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. His main research area focuses on fundamental thermal and electronic properties of sustainable energy materials such as thermoelectrics, as well as their recycling, manufacturing, and device applications. He has a h-index of 27 and has published a total of >80 papers, with >30 corresponding/first authored papers in prestigious journals such as Nature Electronics, Advanced Materials, ACS Energy Letters, and Journal of Materials Chemistry A. He features in the Nanoscale and Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigator series 2022. He currently serves in the early career editorial board in Materials Today Energy and youth editorial board in Soft Science. He has also served as a referee for more than 160 articles in 30 different peer-reviewed journals including prestigious journals such as Science, Angewandte Chemie, and Journal of Materials Chemistry A. He is also the recipient of an outstanding reviewer award from Journal of Materials Chemistry A in 2020. Beyond academics, he is a recipient of a Singapore National Award from the Prime Minister Office for his technical contributions during the COVID-19 crisis.

What encouraged you to become a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry A?

When I first published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A back in 2020, I was very impressed by the rapid processing time and the quality of reviewers’ comments. Many people believe that quality takes a long time, but I have seen that in this journal, it is possible to have both quality and speed in the editorial and review process. Long story short, the smooth experience in publishing with the journal motivated me to sign up as the reviewer. My main motivation at the time was to give back to the energy community (especially in thermoelectrics and piezoelectrics) by helping to review some of the manuscripts. I am also heartened by the various gestures by the journal, such as sharing the final decision of the manuscript, as well as getting to see comments from other reviewers. This simple gesture has largely create the feeling of inclusivity for reviewer like myself. In addition to this, it is also a personal excitement for me to have the first-hand knowledge on the latest development within my research field. This has certainly helped me to better plan my own research and formulate the right scientific question.

What has been your biggest learning point from reviewing?

Having the opportunity to sit “on the other side” of the publishing process, I have had wonderful opportunities to see things from the eyes of reviewers. For instance, I have personally learnt to improve the quality of my own review by looking at the comments from other reviewers which was kindly shared by the journal. Importantly, looking at manuscript from reviewers’ perspective have also tremendously improved my own manuscript quality. When writing my own paper, I take conscious effort to think and see from the readers’ perspective. For example, innocuous habit like grouping all figures together at the end of the manuscript creates unnecessary trouble for some reviewers, having to scroll back and forth throughout the manuscript. On the other hands, I have personally learned some good habits in responding to reviewers’ comments from some of the manuscripts which I helped to review. For instance, by attaching the important changes in the manuscript directly in the response letter can greatly save the reviewer’s time and efforts to locate the specific changes made in response to a specific comment. Overall, as an early-career PI, I feel that I have gained more than what I give through my active involvement in peer review.

Prof. Jiao Jiao Li

Dr Jiao Jiao Li is a biomedical engineer and medical scientist. Her research in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine aims to develop new therapies for chronic diseases, particularly those affecting musculoskeletal tissues using a combination of approaches including stem cells, biomaterials, nanotechnology, and more. She is a Senior Lecturer and Research Group Leader at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She was a recent National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellow, and Co-Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering. She was selected by Science & Technology Australia as a 2021-22 Superstar of STEM – one of 60 Australian women to serve as national role models for the community. Jiao Jiao’s work has been recognised by >30 inter/national awards, including in 2022 the NSW Young Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year and Premier’s Prize for NSW Early Career Researcher of the Year (Physical Sciences) for her nationally significant contributions to research excellence and social impact, and being named as Australia’s Top 20 Under 40 Researchers. She was also the Australian winner of the international Falling Walls Lab competition in 2021. Jiao Jiao has a passion for disseminating science in the community, and for raising up the next generation of secondary and tertiary students for their future careers and leadership in STEM.

What encouraged you to become a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry B?

Journal of Materials Chemistry B gets a lot of high quality submissions from the biomaterials field. As someone who was initially trained as a biomaterials scientist, I love seeing the latest cutting-edge work in the field. I have reviewed many papers for the journal in my interest area of tissue engineering, many of which were from groups conducting the most innovative work in this area, and have learnt a lot from these latest developments. I very much appreciate the journal’s efficient and transparent peer review process. By looking at my comments compared to those of other reviewers and the editor’s decision on manuscripts, I have learnt a lot about the peer review process and how to optimise the quality of my own manuscripts. Reviewing for the journal has also taught me to appreciate differing opinions, particularly when I was invited to provide an adjudicating review for manuscripts with conflicting reviewer reports. I am proud to say that reviewing for the journal has almost grown up together with my academic career, and that I have helped contribute to the growth of Journal of Materials Chemistry B as a major outlet for high quality papers in the biomaterials field.

Do you have any advice for first-time authors seeking publication in the journal?

I find that the best original research papers all share some common characteristics: 1) the work conducted was innovative or gave new insights into what was previously not known in the field, 2) the characterisations or analyses were directly relevant to proving a central point, and were performed with scientific rigour to good breadth and depth, and 3) the manuscript was written in a way that captures the latest advances relating to the subject matter, and clearly explains the significance of the work to a possibly generalist scientific audience. The editors of the journal always find reviewers who have specific expertise in the topic area of the manuscript, so the manuscript needs to well explain the specific novelty/significance of the study compared to the latest advances or what is already known/has been done. To some extent, the same applies for review papers as these also need to offer new insights or perspectives, or feature a unique collection of literature compared to existing reviews on the specific topic area.

Dr Eva Hemmer

Dr. Eva Hemmer is an Associate Professor of Materials Chemistry at the University of Ottawa. She received her PhD (2008) in materials science from Saarland University (Germany) under the mentorship of Prof. Sanjay Mathur. During her PhD she focused on the synthesis of lanthanide alkoxides and their decomposition to lanthanide-containing inorganic nanomaterials. This experience was further deepened during her postdoctoral studies when she worked on lanthanide-doped nanoparticles for near-infrared bioimaging with Prof. Kohei Soga (Tokyo University of Science, Japan, 2009-2012). In 2013 she was awarded a Feodor Lynen Research Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to work in the groups of Profs. Fiorenzo Vetrone and Francois Légaré at INRS-EMT (Université du Québec, Canada, 2012-2015) to develop nanothermometers based on upconverting nanoparticles. In winter 2016 she came to Ottawa in order to design and study novel multifunctional lanthanide-based nanocarriers for biomedical and energy conversion applications at the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences.

What encouraged you to become a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry C?

I started reviewing for Journal of Materials Chemistry C when I was a postdoctoral fellow. One of my mentors, who was an editor, encouraged me to become a reviewer. I remember that I was quite nervous about it at the beginning. But I quickly started to enjoy reviewing as it is a great opportunity to get to see brand new research in materials chemistry that is also relevant to my own work on optical nanomaterials. The fact that JMCC shared the comments made by other reviewers as well as the final decision was very helpful and took away my initial uncertainty; it helped me to get better (I hope so 😊) in writing reviews and also to improve my own manuscript writing (I often ask myself what questions the reviewer might ask).

What would you recommend to new reviewers to ensure their report is helpful?

In my opinion, a helpful report provides constructive criticism. I have been lucky as an author to have received reviewer comments that helped to make the paper stronger. On the other hand, nothing is more frustrating than a one-liner rejection. My advice for new reviewers would be to accept review invitations for manuscripts about a topic that aligns very well with their own expertise, before getting into more complementary research fields.  Also, only accept an invitation if you have the time to carefully read the manuscript and to write a detailed report in time.

Prof. Seung Uk Son

Prof. Seung Uk Son is currently working for the Department of Chemistry in Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea. He majored in organometallics and received his Ph. D in 2001 from Seoul National University, South Korea. He collaborated with Prof. Young Keun Chung, Prof. Taeghwan Hyeon, and Prof. Dwight A. Sweigart on organometallics and nanomaterials. He joined Sungkyunkwan University in 2005. His present research focuses on morphology-engineered microporous organic polymers (ME-MOPs) for environment, energy, and bio-applications. He is serving as an Advisory Board member of Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Materials Advances.

What do you like most about being a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry A?

Compared with my reviewer experience for the journals of other publishers, the prompt efforts of the editorial office were the most impressive point for me. The fast decision including adjudicative cases and the handy communications from the editorial office have made my reviewing process comfortable. From the statement of authors, I could figure out easily the key intention of authors, which was another good point in the reviewing process of Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

Do you have any advice for first-time authors seeking publication in the journal?

I think that Journal of Materials Chemistry A is a representative materials chemistry journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The meaning of materials chemistry papers can be analysed from the aspects of synthesis or functional performance. If authors explain the meaning of works from these aspects (usually one of them), it will be very helpful for reviewers to figure out the meaning of works. In the case of synthesis, the novel synthetic point can be appealed, especially, compared with the previous work of authors or literature. For application performance, simple record competition without corresponding scientific logic and principles was not persuasive for me to understand the meaning of work. Thus, I think that the new principle is important rather than the technical record comparison. Moreover, without beating performance records, the trial and suggestion of new scientific principles can be sufficiently welcomed.

Prof. Shinn-Jyh Ding

Prof. Shinn-Jyh Ding is a faculty member at the Institute of Oral Science at Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan (1999) on the topic of hydroxyapatite-based gradient composite coatings by plasma spraying and magnetron sputtering. Since 2015, he has been honored as a guest professor at University of Debrecen, Hungary. Research interests include surface modification of metallic implants, biomimetic bone cements, and biocomposites for load-bearing applications.

Do you have any advice for first-time authors seeking publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry B?

While the novelty and impact of a manuscript are the first things to be noted, the presentation of figures and tables is also extremely important to a good manuscript. In general, unclear Figure editing includes poor X- and Y-axes, symbols (or labels), and low image quality making the results difficult to read and understand. Furthermore, it is suggested that figures and tables can be embedded in the text, which leads to a clear presentation of the results. A commonly poor practice is to over-repeat the results without engaging in an in-depth discussion with previous studies.

What has been your biggest learning point from reviewing?

The biggest gain is to learn a state-of-the-art article from a researcher, which is related to my research interests. From that article, some insights and perspectives can be inspired in future work. Reviewing a well-organized article facilitates the manuscript writing of our research.

Prof. Martin Bryce

Martin Bryce graduated from Wolverhampton Polytechnic. He obtained a D.Phil. from York University in 1978 for work on synthetic methodology for sulfur and selenium heterocycles under the guidance of John Vernon and Peter Hanson. Following postdoctoral positions at the University of British Columbia,Vancouver (in Larry Weiler’s group) and the University of Bristol (in Roger Alder’s group) he joined Durham University. He was promoted to Professor of Chemistry at Durham in 1995. He is the recipient of a Ciba-Geigy Award for academic collaboration in Europe (1990), the Royal Society of Chemistry Bader Award (1992), the Royal Society of Chemistry Interdisciplinary Award (1992), the Nuffield Foundation Science Research Fellowship (1993), the University of Durham Sir Derman Christopherson Fellowship (1995) and the Royal Society of Chemistry Heterocyclic Chemistry Award (2002). Martin has held Visiting Scientist positions at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Copenhagen. He was a Troisième Cycle Lecturer in Switzerland in 2008 and a Tarrant Visiting Professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville in 2013. He was the co-director of the Durham University Centre for Molecular and Nanoscale Electronics (1990-2018). He was the Scientific Editor of the Journal of Materials Chemistry (1995-2000). Martin coordinated the EC FP7 Marie Curie ITNs “Fundamentals of Molecular Electronic Assemblies” (FUNMOLS) (2008-2012) and “Molecular-Scale Electronics” (MOLESCO) (2014-2017) comprising 10 European partner laboratories.

What do you like most about being a reviewer for Journal of Materials Chemistry C?

The opportunity to help authors to improve their work by making constructive comments, and also to ensure that lower quality work is not accepted, by rejecting manuscripts that contain major errors, or are incomplete, or lack innovation

Do you have any advice for first-time authors seeking publication in the journal?

Pay as much attention to accuracy and detail in the Supporting Information as you do for the main manuscript. The rigour of the work (or lack of rigour) is often revealed by the content of the SI.

Thank you to all of our outstanding and dedicated reviewers for their support of the Journal of Materials Chemistry family of journals over the years.

We hope you enjoyed finding out more about some of our reviewers. Keep an eye out for our next ‘Community Spotlight’!

If you missed any of our previous ‘Community Spotlight’ blog posts, check them all out here.

This year we are pleased to celebrate 10 years since Journal of Materials Chemistry was split into three respective journals: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, each focusing on a different aspect of materials chemistry. We are grateful to our fantastic community of authors, reviewers, Board members and readers and wanted to showcase just some of them in a series of ‘Community Spotlight’ blog articles.

In the second of our ‘Community Spotlight’ series, we feature some more of the Advisory Board members who have supported Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B or C over the years and have asked them what they like most about being on the journal’s Advisory Boards and about their recent Journal of Materials Chemistry publications. Check out their interview responses below.

Prof. Magda Titirici

Prof. Magda Titirici is a Chair of Sustainable Energy Materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. Her research interests are related to the development of sustainable materials for energy storage and conversion in particular batteries beyond Li ion as well as sustainable electrocatalytic processes for oxygen reduction free of critical metal or biomass oxidation with H2 production. She has served as an Associate Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry A between 2013-2022. She has published over 300 papers in this area among which > 15 are in J Mater Chem A. She remains currently in the J Mater Chem A advisory board and continues to engage with the materials chemistry community in her role of the President of the RSC Materials Chemistry Community.

What do you like most about being on the Advisory Board for Journal of Materials Chemistry A?

I like being at the forefront of materials chemistry research by being involved in reviewing topical papers, setting new strategies for the journal, suggesting special issues, and indirectly interacting with different scientific topics, especially following on from my previous role as an Associate Editor for J Mater Chem A. I believe that the J Mater Chem family works with the materials chemistry community for the materials chemistry community, and you always feel included as scientist no matter where you work in the world.

What do you think of Journal of Materials Chemistry A as a place to publish impactful materials chemistry research?

J Mater Chem A is indeed the ideal place to publish research in materials chemistry related to green materials, energy and other environmental applications in order to maximise impact and visibility of research. This is due to the journal’s great scientific reputation and the professionalism of to its editorial team. J Mater Chem was one of the first journal I have published in at the very start of my academic career. It has been instrumental for my academic career especially during my early days.

Where do you see the materials chemistry field in the next 10 years?

I believe that theory driven materials discovery using high throughput automatic robots optimised by AI to balance cost performance and sustainability will increase significantly. This is where I see the future of materials chemistry.

Prof. Markus Niederberger

Markus Niederberger is an Advisory Board member for Journal of Materials Chemistry A. He is a Professor of Multifunctional Materials in the Department of Materials at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He received his diploma in Chemistry and his doctoral degree from ETH Zurich. After a postdoctoral stay at the University of California Santa Barbara he was a group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. His group is active in diverse research areas ranging from nanoparticle synthesis to aerogels for gas-phase photocatalysis, flexible, transparent and degradable batteries, polymers for corrosion protection and luminescent materials.

What do you like most about being on the Advisory Board for Journal of Materials Chemistry A?
As an Advisory Board member I often act as adjudicative referee for manuscripts with conflicting reports. I like doing this because it is very instructive for me. I learn about the different views and opinions of experts on certain topics and I have to weigh them carefully so that I can make a sound and fair recommendation.

Where do you see the materials chemistry field in the next 10 years?
It is clear that sustainability will become a focus. However, I also believe that the aspect of rapid implementation of research results in industry and technology will continue to gain in importance, which will strongly influence research and publication activities.

Prof. Ross Forgan

What do you like most about being on the Advisory Board for Journal of Materials Chemistry B?

Having an overview of the wide range of exciting materials research that is being published, building links with others in the field through things like special issues (I am co-editing a special issue for JMC B in 2023), and supporting the younger members of the community through initiatives such as the JMC lectureship.

Could you provide a brief summary of your most recent Journal of Materials Chemistry B publication?

Our most recent publication was a review article on the application of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as nanoscale imaging agents led by Dr Fatma Demir Duman. The review covers a wide range of potential imaging applications to which MOFs can be applied, focussing on structure-activity relationships and highlighted the great potential for MOFs to act as multifunctional vectors in nanomedicine.

Prof. Marta Mas-Torrent

Prof. Marta Mas-Torrent is an Advisory Board member for Journal of Materials Chemistry C. She received her PhD in 2002 working at the Institut de Ciència de Materials (ICMAB-CSIC) in Barcelona (Spain) and at The Royal Institution of Great Britain in London (UK). Afterwards, she carried out postdoctoral research at Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft (The Netherlands). Since June 2007 she obtained a research position at ICMAB-CSIC. In 2012 she was awarded with an ERC Starting Grant project and one year later an ERC-PoC project. She has also participated in many other European and national projects as well as in two industrial related projects. She is co-author of around 190 publications and co-inventor of 7 patents. Prof. Mas-Torrent received the 2013 Oliver Kahn International Award for her contributions in the field of materials science and the Prize of Young Researcher 2006 of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ). Currently she is leading an interdisciplinary research group focused on the design and preparation of new functional molecular materials for their application in organic electronic devices.

Her interests range from fundamental studies in order to better understand materials properties to a more applied perspective aiming at developing proof-of-principle devices. Particularly, she is interested in structure-property correlation studies, surface self-assembly, processing of organic semiconductors, organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), electrolyte-gated organic field effect transistors (EGOFETs), charge transport and sensors.

What do you think of Journal of Materials Chemistry C as a place to publish impactful materials chemistry research?

The J. Mater. Chem. C is a widely read journal among the materials science community and holds a strong and long history. The journal is suitable to publish novel materials, fundamental studies of appealing materials as well as advanced applications. In particular, related to my research field of molecular electronics, I always found here very inspiring works.

Could you provide a brief summary of your most recent Journal of Materials Chemistry C publication?

In my last publication, we report the fabrication of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) that respond to UV radiation. The OFETs have been prepared using as active layer a blend of an organic semiconductor with different insulating polymers. We show that the nature of the binding polymer has a significant impact on the device performance and photoresponse due to the tuning of the charge traps. Therefore, this work demonstrates that the use of a binding polymer is a useful tool to optimise the OFET electrical characteristics as well as its photoresponsivity.

Prof. Yanlin Song

Yanlin Song is on the Advisory Board for Journal of Materials Chemistry C and is a professor and director of Key Laboratory of Green Pringting at Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS). He received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Chemistry at Peking University in 1996. Then he conducted research as a postdoctoral follow at Tsinghua University from 1996 to 1998. He has been working at ICCAS since 1998. His research interests include nano-materials and green-printing technology, printed electrics and photonics, fabrication and applications of nanostructured devices. He has published more than 400 papers and 15 books and chapters, with a H-index of 95, and has been granted more than 130 patents from China, USA, European Union , Japan and Korea, etc.

Where do you see the materials chemistry field in the next 10 years?

In the next 10 years, the design and preparation of new molecules and materials will be influenced greatly by Artificial Intelligence, such as DNA Synthesis and Materials Genome, and the disciplinary crossing and integration of Chemistry, Materials and Bioscience will be more and more important and popular.

 Could you provide a brief summary of your most recent Journal of Materials Chemistry C publication?

Recently, we have published a review article with the title “Interface engineering of perovskite nanocrystals: challenges and opportunities for biological imaging and detection”. Perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have attracted much attention due to their unique optical properties, including high photoluminescence quantum yield, narrow emission and tunable wavelength. This perspective focuses on the recent progress of these promising materials as fluorescent probes for biological diagnosis. Efforts on the interface engineering are presented on how to construct water-resistant and biocompatible PNC probes. Their applications in biological diagnosis are discussed with a focus on cell and tumor imaging, biomolecular detection, and fluorescence immunoassay. With the high tolerance of defect, precisely tunable emission, and strong light absorption coefficient, the physical and optical properties of PNCs are superior to traditional fluorescent dyes. Finally, this perspective discusses the challenges and opportunities for the application of PNCs as fluorescent labeling probes in biological fields.

We hope you enjoyed finding out more about some more of our Advisory Board members. Keep an eye out for our next ‘Community Spotlight’!

If you missed the first of our ‘Community Spotlight’ blog posts, check it out here.