Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

The 42nd RSC Solid State Chemistry Group Christmas Meeting (SSCG 2023) took place in Edinburgh, UK from 18–19 December 2023. Materials Chemistry Frontiers, Materials Advances, Dalton Transactions, New Journal of Chemistry, CrystEngComm, RSC Mechanochemistry and Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers were pleased to support awards at this event and we would like to congratulate our winners! In addition to the awards supported by our RSC journals, the Roy Prize for best graduate student oral presentation and the Dent-Glasser Prize for best crystallography in oral or poster were awarded by the RSC Solid State Chemistry Group.

Group photo of the prize winners at SSCG 2023.

Learn more about the prize winners below:

Roy Prize for best graduate student oral presentation Anthony Onwuli (Imperial College London) Anthony Onwuli is a PhD Student in Materials Science at Imperial College London under the supervision of Prof. Aron Walsh. He obtained his MEng degree from Imperial College London, UK, with a First Class Honours in Materials Science and Engineering in 2020. His current doctoral research has focused on developing software and leveraging materials data to aid in the screening and identification of new chemical spaces. He uses chemical heuristics, density functional theory calculations and machine learning to explore and design novel chemical spaces to discover potential candidates for solid-state electrolytes.

Dent-Glasser Prize for best crystallography in oral or poster Eliza Dempsey (University of Edinburgh) Eliza Dempsey is a PhD student with Dr James Cumby at the University of Edinburgh. She completed her degree in Chemical Physics in 2021 and now researches the control of functional properties in metal oxyfluorides. Using solid-state synthesis, X-ray diffraction and density functional theory she is exploring the links between chemical composition, structure and properties in these materials. Alongside her PhD she also works on science communication as president of EUSci: the Edinburgh University Science Media society.

Materials Chemistry Frontiers Prize for Characterisation Cara Hawkins (University of Liverpool) Cara Hawkins is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Liverpool, studying under the supervision of Prof. Matthew Rosseinsky FRS in the Materials Innovation Factory. Cara obtained her Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Liverpool in 2021, before moving into Chemistry as a postgraduate. Her research focuses on the discovery of new inorganic materials for use in energy technologies. She is particularly interested in the synthesis of novel mixed anion compounds for photovoltaic applications, with the aim of engineering improved properties beyond single anion compositions.

Materials Advances Prize for Computational Science Andrew McCluskey (University of Bristol) Andrew McCluskey is a lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Bristol. He moved to Bristol in 2023 following periods at the European Spallation Source and Diamond Light Source to establish a research group focusing on the role of mathematical modelling in materials science. In particular, he is interested in using Bayesian and probabilistic approaches to offer improved analysis of both simulation and experiment.

Dalton Transactions Poster Prize Alexandra Morscher (University of Liverpool) Alexandra Morscher is originally from Austria and moved to Scotland for her undergraduate studies where she received her master’s degree from the University of Aberdeen in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Abbie McLaughlin. Her master’s work focused on the investigation of magnetocaloric materials and was carried out at the ICMCB in Bordeaux. After completing her master’s degree, she joined the University of Liverpool as a PhD student working under the supervision of Professor Matthew Rosseinsky and as part of the Faraday Institution’s SOLBAT project. Her work focuses on the discovery and characterisation of novel solid electrolytes for the use in All Solid-State Batteries. Her interest lies in utilising diffraction techniques to elucidate robust structure-property relationships and using this insight to guide research, striving for property optimisation.

New Journal of Chemistry Prize for Interdisciplinarity Giuditta Perversi (Maastricht University, Netherlands) Giuditta Perversi is an Assistant Professor of Materials Chemistry at Maastricht University (NL), which she joined in 2019. She obtained her PhD in 2018, under the supervision of Prof. Paul Attfield at the University of Edinburgh (UK), and was subsequently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Montpellier (FR) in the group of Prof. Werner Paulus. Her main research interests focus on functional materials, in particular transition metal oxides for energy applications: she tackles new synthesis methods and new phase spaces, but also performs in-depth structural analysis (including single crystal, local structure and magnetic structure work) to correlate structure and property in complex order-disorder systems. Giuditta is extensively active in teaching and research-base learning, leading inorganic chemistry education at the Maastricht Science Programme, and liaises with interdisciplinary institutes: a key example is the bridging of materials science into cultural heritage, as she works in support of painting conservation efforts alongside the Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (SRAL).

CrystEngComm Poster Prize John Cattermull (University of Oxford) John Cattermull is a final year DPhil student at the University of Oxford, working in the groups of Prof Mauro Pasta and Prof Andrew Goodwin FRS. John read Chemistry for his undergraduate at the University of Oxford, winning a thesis prize in Inorganic Chemistry for his Master’s research project. His doctoral research focuses on investigating the structural chemistry of Prussian Blue Analogue materials in the context of their application in K-ion batteries. In 2021, John was awarded a Lord Bullock Memorial Scholarship from St. Catherine’s College, Oxford.

RSC Mechanochemistry Prize for Synthesis Craig Hiley (University of Warwick) Craig Hiley is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Warwick in the groups of Prof. Richard Walton and Dr Mark Senn. He received a Master’s degree and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Warwick after studying the synthesis and magnetic and catalytic properties of new oxide materials. After postdoctoral positions at the University of Liverpool and University of Leicester, in 2022 he returned to Warwick to explore solution synthesis of transition metal fluoride layered perovskites.

Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers Poster Prize Nataliia Hulai (University of Liverpool) Dr. Nataliia Hulai obtained her bachelor’s (2016) and master’s (2018) degrees at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine, under the guidance of Prof. Yaroslav Kalychak. After that, she joined the group of Prof. Rainer Pöttgen at the University of Münster, Germany, where she was studying crystal structure and physical properties of intermetallic compounds of indium. After receiving her PhD degree in 2022, she has joined the group of Prof. Matthew Rosseinsky at the University of Liverpool. Dr. Hulai’s current research is focused on discovery of new oxide materials, their structure and property characterization, and crystallography.

We’d like to congratulate all the prize winners once more, it’s a great achievement for their work to be selected from all the excellent research presented at the event. We’d also like to thank all organisers and the RSC Solid State Chemistry Group for organising this conference. You can follow the RSC Solid State Chemistry Group (@SscgR) on Twitter to keep up to date with their latest news.

We are delighted to announce that Materials Advances will run an annual Paper Prize to celebrate the most significant articles published in the journal in the previous calendar year.

This year we recognise 3 outstanding papers that were published in 2022. The authors of each paper will receive a free infographic (normally worth between £350 – £750), a signed certificate, and promotion of their work through the journal networks.

Find the winner and runner-up papers below, and keep an eye out for more information soon!

Materials Advances 2023 Paper Prize winner:

Facet-dependent carrier dynamics of cuprous oxide regulating the photocatalytic hydrogen generation
Cui Ying Toe, Marlene Lamers, Thomas Dittrich, Hassan A. Tahini, Sean C. Smith, Jason Scott, Rose Amal, Roel van de Krol, Fatwa F. Abdi and Yun Hau Ng

Materials Advances 2023 Paper Prize runner-up:

Metal-free polypeptide redox flow batteries
Zhiming Liang, Tan P. Nguyen, N. Harsha Attanayake, Alexandra D. Easley, Jodie L. Lutkenhaus, Karen L. Wooley and Susan A. Odom

Materials Advances 2023 Paper Prize runner-up:

White light emission generated by two stacking patterns of a single organic molecular crystal
Yuma Nakagawa, Kuon Kinoshita, Megumi Kasuno, Ryo Nishimura, Masakazu Morimoto, Satoshi Yokojima, Makoto Hatakeyama, Yuki Sakamoto, Shinichiro Nakamura and Kingo Uchida

If you want to be in with a chance of winning the Materials Advances Paper Prize in a future year then submit your next high quality materials science research to the journal here.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Materials Advances are delighted to welcome Dr Yang Xu from University College London to their Advisory Boards.

Dr Yang Xu, University College London, UK

Dr Yang Xu is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Electrochemical Energy Storage in the Department of Chemistry at University College London (UCL). He received his bachelor’s and PhD degrees at the University of Science and Technology of China under the supervision of Professor Yi Xie, and carried out his postdoctoral work in the US, Canada, and Germany. He joined UCL Chemistry in 2019 and started his independent research group. His research focus is emerging battery technologies including Na, K, and Ca-based systems, with particular interest in Na/K/Ca-ion intercalation chemistry, the electrodeposition of Na/K metal anodes, and the electrochemical mechanism of Na-S and K-S batteries. His group recently developed new interest in hybrid ion battery systems.

Here is what Prof. Xu had to say about joining the Materials Advances family:

• What does it mean to you to join the Advisory Board of Materials Advances?

 It means I will have the opportunity to share my knowledge, expertise, and ideas with the journal and engage to a large extent with the research community of materials science. At the same time, it will enhance the visibility of my research and my experience of getting involved in the functioning and development of a journal. Let’s not forget that this is also a great networking opportunity to me.

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

I think the biggest challenge for emerging battery technologies is the gap between academic research and industrial production and application. Often exciting results from publications can be insufficiently relevant to the practical use of the materials due to various reasons such as scalability of the synthesis, sustainability of the processing, the non-standardized testing protocols to test batteries and so on. Although the development of many emerging battery technologies is still at infancy, we can learn from the paths to commercialization of Li-ion batteries and more recent Na-ion batteries when researching new materials for new batteries. Another challenge I think is that we need more support for the research of emerging battery technologies, be it more funding, more attention from industry, or more opportunities for academics to talk with industry, even though the return to the support will be in a long term. The success of Na-ion batteries is a good example.

• What advances in your field are you most excited about?

I’m very excited about the new advances of Na-ion batteries transforming from lab research to commercial products, which has made Na-ion batteries coming into the spotlight of electrochemical energy storage. I’m also very excited to see a range of emerging battery systems including K, Ca, Mg, and Al are gaining rapidly increasing attention. Many interesting research results of these systems have diversified the energy research landscape and further our understanding of electrochemistry.

• Why do you feel that researchers should choose to publish their work in Materials Advances?

Gold open access allows research results to be disseminated quickly and widely. This is crucial for fast paced research areas like materials science and particularly beneficial for researchers working in these areas. Materials Advances is in the RSC materials journal family. It will give a wide exposure of the research published in the journal to the community.

Check out some of Yang’s recent publications in Royal Society of Chemistry journals:

• H. R. Tinker, C. A. Howard, M. Zhou, Y. Xu,* “Exploring anodes for calcium-ion batteries”, Mater. Advances, Just Accepted.
• A.P. Vijaya Saroja, B. Li, Y. Xu,* “Hybrid nanostructures for electrochemical potassium storage”, Nanoscale Adv., 2021, 3, 5442. (Front cover)
• W. Li, Y. Xu,* Y. Dong, Y. Wu, C. Zhang, M. Zhou, Q. Fu, M. Wu, Y. Lei,* “Bismuth oxychloride nanoflake assemblies as a new anode for potassium ion batteries”, Chem. Commun. 2019, 55, 6507.
• Y. Xu,* F. Bahmani, M. Zhou, Y. Li, C. Zhang, F. Liang, S. H. Kazemi, U. Kaiser, G. Meng,* Y. Lei,* “Enhancing potassium-ion battery performance by defect and interlayer engineering”, Nanoscale Horizons 2019, 4, 202.
• H. Dong, Y. Xu,* C. Zhang, Y. Wu, M. Zhou, L. Liu, Y. Dong, Q. Fu, M. Wu, Y. Lei,* “MoS₂ nanosheets with expanded interlayer spacing for enhanced sodium storage”, Inorg. Chem. Front. 2018, 5, 3099.

Join us in welcoming Yang to our Advisory Boards!

Materials Advances is delighted to welcome Prof. Yogendra Kumar Mishra from the Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark to our Advisory Board.

Prof. Yogendra Kumar Mishra, University of Southern Denmark

Professor Yogendra Kumar Mishra is Professor MSO and Leader of Smart Materials at Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Sønderborg, Denmark. Prior to SDU, he was leading a scientifically independent group at the Institute for Material Science, Kiel University, Germany. In Kiel, he developed a new flame-based process for versatile nanostructuring of metal oxides and their 3D interconnected networks in the form of flexible ceramics materials. These zinc oxide tetrapod nanostructures have found many applications in engineering and biomedical fields. Additionally, he introduced a new field of hollow 3D tetrapodal materials engineering, i.e., by using these ZnO networks as sacrificial templates, almost any material can be synthesized in tetrapodal form. This sacrificial template-based strategy opened a completely new field of materials engineering in the form of hybrid and new tetrapodal materials.  At SDU, NanoSYD, his lab is developinga  new class of functional materials bridging the gap from Lab to Life, i.e., Smart Materials for Green and Sustainable Future Technologies’. His research keywords are: Zinc Oxide Tetrapods, 3D Nanotechnology, Smart Materials, Biomaterials, Imaging, Sensing, Drug Delivery, Antiviral, Therapy, Energy Technologies, Photocatalysis, Water Purification

Here is what Prof. Mishra had to say about joining the Materials Advances family:

• What does it mean to you to join the Advisory Board of Materials Advances?

Royal Society of Chemistry is among one of the most prestigious societies and it is my pleasure and honour to be associated and contribute to RSC. Although RSC has several prestigious journals covering materials aspects, but their focuses are somehow aligned in particular directions. Materials are the key components in everything surrounding us and therefore, their development and understanding could play a major role in progressing society. Materials advancement is therefore very much desired and such a portfolio was missing somehow at RSC. The launch of Materials Advances was therefore a very smart move from RSC and I am very happy to be an advisory board member. Already witnessing the high rank publications, I am very much sure about the high prestige of Materials Advances in future.

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

Materials development is key to progressing science and society in every sense. Integrating various functions in desired compact nanoscale forms and understanding their structure-property relationships is something that has been investigated since few decades already, but it is still an open topic. Translating  materials from laboratory to life is  going to be very important in the future in order to bridge the gap from Lab to Life. Material architecture in this context, e.g., 3D  materials, have become a very important topic of investigation in the interdisciplinary materials community, because they can bridge this gap. The most important challenge is to develop a new class of materials which can address both, i.e  the real-life application as well as be socially sustainable to fulfill the desired green transition and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

• What advances in your field are you most excited about?

Three dimensionally arranged materials out of nanoscopic building blocks open the scope for easy functionalization as well as use in desired applications. I am very much fascinated about how easily one can integrate many functions inside porous architecture materials and reliably use them in various ways. Additionally, they reveal new fundamental knowledge about their novel structure-property relationships. These materials have opened the door to many new challenging applications.

• Why do you feel that researchers should choose to publish their work in Materials Advances?

Materials Advances is fully open access journal covering detailed aspects about advancement in materials, synthesis, properties, and applications in broad interdisciplinary directions. The published articles are going to have high visibility and impact too in the science community and this is a good motivation to choose Materials Advances as a promising platform to publish.  

 

Check out some of Prof. Mishra’s recent publications in Royal Society of Chemistry journals:

• S. N. Banitaba, S. V. Ebadi, P. Salimi, A. Bagheri, A. Gupta, W. U. Arifeen, V. Chaudhary, Y. K. Mishra, A. Kaushik, E. Mostafavi, ”Biopolymer-based Electrospun Fibers in Electrochemical Devices: Versatile Platform for Energy, Environment, and Health Monitoring’’, Materials Horizons 9, 2914-2948 (2022).
• S. K. Sharma, G. Sharma, A. Gaur, A. Aray, F. S. Mirsafi, R. Abolhassani, H. G. Rubahn, J. S. Yu, Y. K Mishra*, ”Progress in Electrode and Electrolyte Materials: Path to All-solid-state Li-ion Batteries’’, Energy Advances 1, 457-510 (2022).
• Kumar, A. Sood, R. Singhmar, Y. K. Mishra, V. K. Thakur, ”Manufacturing of Functional Hydrogels for Inducing Angiogenic-osteogenic Coupled Progressions in Hard Tissue Repair: Prospects and Challenges’’, Biomaterials Science 10, 5472-5497 (2022).
• Panda, S. Hajra, K. Mistewicz, B. Nowacki, P. In-na, A. Krushynska, Y. K. Mishra, H. J. Kim, ”A Focused Review on Three-dimensional Bioprinting Technology for Artificial Organ Fabrication’’, Biomaterials Science 10, 5054-5080 (2022).
• Dhiman, S. Ghosh, Y. K. Mishra, K. M. Tripathi ”Prospects of Nano-carbons as Emerging Catalysts for Enzyme-mimetic Applications’’, Materials Advances 3, 3101-3122 (2022).
• Phalswal, P. K. Khanna, Horst-Günter, Rubahn, Y. K. Mishra, ”Nanostructured Molybdenum Dichalcogenides: A Review’’, Materials Advances 3, 5672-5697 (2022).
• K. Panda, P. Kumar, P. Patel, S. K. Samal, S. Mishra, M. M. Tambuwala, A. Dutt, K. Hilscherova, Y. K. Mishra, R. S. Varma, M. Suar, R. Ahuja, S. K. Verma, ”Molecular Nanoinformatics Approach Assessing the Biocompatibility of Biogenic Silver Nanoparticles with Channelized Intrinsic Seatosis and Apoptosis’’, Green Chemistry 24, 1190-1210 (2022).

Join us in welcoming Prof Mishra to our Advisory Boards!

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Journal of Materials Chemistry A in 2018, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Dr Michelle Browne, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, ORCID: 0000-0002-3574-9113
Professor Joaquin Coronas, Universidad de Zaragoza, ORCID: 0000-0003-1512-4500
Dr Fei Du, Jilin University, ORCID: 0000-0001-6413-0689
Dr Yongjin Fang, Wuhan University, ORCID 0000-0002-8988-525X
Dr Prashun Gorai, Colorado School of Mines, ORCID: 0000-0001-7866-0672
Dr Binghong Han, Argonne National Laboratory, ORCID: 0000-0002-2919-3235
Dr Xingkang Huang, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, ORCID: 0000-0001-7965-1866
Dr Charles Kappenstein, Universite de Poitiers, ORCID: 0000-0001-6695-9263
Dr Zaiyuan Le, University of California Los Angeles, ORCID: 0000-0002-9925-7513
Dr Tianyu Liu, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, ORCID: 0000-0002-8716-749X
Professor Liqiang Mai, Wuhan University of Technology, ORCID: 0000-0003-4259-7725
Dr Xiangtong Meng, Dalian University of Technology, ORCID: 0000-0001-6611-7023
Dr Wee-Jun Ong, Xiamen University Malaysia, ORCID: 0000-0002-5124-1934
Dr Martin Oschatz, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, ORCID: 0000-0003-2377-1214
Dr Kaiyuan Shi, National Research Council Canada, ORCID: 0000-0002-9371-5405
Professor Seung Uk Son, Sungkyunkwan University, ORCID: 0000-0002-4779-9302
Dr Kaido Tammeveski, Tartu Ulikool, ORCID: 0000-0002-4144-4471
Professor Bart Van der Bruggen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, ORCID: 0000-0002-3921-7472
Dr Shengping Wang, China University of Geosciences, ORCID: 0000-0003-3064-9348
Professor Cafer Yavuz, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, ORCID: 0000-0003-0580-3331
Dr Xi Yin, Los Alamos National Laboratory, ORCID: 0000-0002-6624-5823
Dr Le Yu, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, ORCID: 0000-0003-1227-1273
Dr Yuan Yue, E O Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ORCID: 0000-0002-6531-6546
Dr Mohamed Zakaria, Busshitsu Zairyo Kenkyu Kiko, ORCID: 0000-0003-2525-0092
Professor Bin Zhang, Tianjin University School of Science, ORCID: 0000-0003-0542-1819

We would also like to thank the Journal of Materials Chemistry A board and the materials chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Journal of Materials Chemistry B in 2018, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Dr Elizabeth Aisenbrey, University of Colorado Boulder
Professor Ramesh Aiyagari, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, ORCID: 0000-0002-4272-298X
Dr Qing Cai, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, ORCID: 0000-0001-6618-0321
Professor Tianfeng Chen, University of Jinan, ORCID: 0000-0001-6953-1342
Dr James Dabrowiak, Syracuse University, ORCID: 0000-0002-5943-5979
Professor Shinn-Jyh Ding, Chung Shan Medical University, ORCID: 0000-0002-2328-7126
Dr Yuba Eiji, Osaka Furitsu Daigaku, ORCID: 0000-0003-4984-2113
Dr Olivier Guillaume, Technical University Vienna, ORCID: 0000-0003-0735-113X
Dr Young-Il Jeong, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, ORCID: 0000-0002-9832-4331
Dr Naoki Kawazoe, Busshitsu Zairyo Kenkyu Kiko, ORCID: 0000-0003-3916-0709
Dr Béatrice Labat, Universite de Rouen, ORCID: 0000-0003-0994-8335
Dr Jingchao Li, Donghua University, ORCID: 0000-0002-2651-171X
Dr Linqing Li, Boston University and Wyss Institute at Harvard University, ORCID: 0000-0003-3003-9902
Dr Biman Mandal Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, ORCID: 0000-0003-3936-4621
Dr Zhengwei Mao, Zhejiang University, ORCID: 0000-0001-7990-2856
Dr Scott Mitchell, Instituto de Ciencias de Materiales de Aragon, ORCID: 0000-0003-4848-414X
Dr Melissa Reynolds, Colorado State University, ORCID: 0000-0002-1836-7324
Professor Xiangyang Shi, Donghua University, ORCID: 0000-0001-6785-6645
Dr Jingtan Su, Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, ORCID: 0000-0002-1599-8577
Dr Wei-Lung Tseng, National Sun Yat-sen University, ORCID: 0000-0001-9808-5863
Dr Tamás Vidóczy, Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia, ORCID: 0000-0002-0500-2430
Dr Wei Xia, Uppsala Universitet, ORCID: 0000-0002-7356-3002
Professor Yufang Zhu, Shanghai University, ORCID: 0000-0001-9031-8861

We would also like to thank the Journal of Materials Chemistry B board and the materials chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre