Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Horizons were delighted to sponsor the poster prize awards at the 2025 Materials for Medical Devices workshop which took place at the University of Nottingham from 21-22 January 2025. Congratulations to our poster prize winners Antonis Stylianou and Qiran Du! Find out more about them below:

Antonis Stylianou, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy, is at the forefront of vaccine delivery innovation. Under the guidance of Dr. James E. Dixon, Dr. Maria Marlow, and Prof. Janet M. Daly, Antonis is developing mass-deployable, self-administered DNA vaccines using Microneedle Array Patches (MAPs).His research, supported by an EPSRC Industrial CASE studentship in collaboration with Nemaura Medical, aims to revolutionise global immunization strategies. The MAPs Antonis is developing consist of micro-projections under 1 mm in length, enabling painless self-administration of vaccines into the skin. This innovative approach has the potential to eliminate the need for cold-chain infrastructure and reduce dependence on healthcare professionals for vaccine administration. By addressing key challenges in MAP manufacturing and global vaccine accessibility, Antonis’s work represents a significant advancement in pandemic preparedness and vaccine technology. The impact of this research extends beyond technological innovation, with the potential to transform immunisation practices worldwide, particularly benefiting regions with limited healthcare infrastructure. Antonis won a prize for his poster entitled, ‘Mass deployable self-administered DNA vaccines by Microneedle Arrays’

Qiran Du is currently a PhD student in Immunology since 2021 and a Research Associate at the University of Nottingham, UK. Qiran studied a BSc in Pharmacy at Ocean University of China from 2013-2017 before studying an MSc in Pharmaceuticals at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China from 2017 – 2020. Qiran is fascinated by materials and their ability to modulate immune responses and how material controlled applications can be used in areas of wound healing and tissue regeneration to improve lives.  Qiran won a prize for the poster entitled, ‘Elucidating the in vitro immune response to surgical meshes coated with immune-instructive polymer’

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C, Materials Horizons, Materials Advances and Nanoscale Advances were delighted to sponsor poster prizes at the recent 15th Asian Conference on Chemical Sensors (ACCS15) which was held in Kitakyushu-city, Japan from November 17 – 20. We would like to congratulate the winners and you can find out more about them below:

Kimiharu Oba received his B.S. degree in engineering from Tohoku University in 2023. He is currently a master’s student at Tohoku University under supervision of Profs. Shiku and Ino. He is developing a new imaging system based on working on electrochemiluminescence for the visualization of cellular function. Currently, He is visualizing the permeability of vascular endothelial and intestinal epithelial cells, comparing it with electrical resistance values, and investigating cellular drug responses. Kimiharu Oba received a poster prize for his poster entitled ‘Electrochemiluminescence imaging of cell adhesion in gut-on-a-chip’

Kwangmin Shim received his B.S. degree from Hongik University in 2014 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Jung Hwan Seo at the same institution. His research focuses on the development of micro gas chromatography systems for real-time, on-site analysis of hazardous substances. Currently, he is working on designing an advanced micro gas chromatography system specifically targeting ultra-light hazardous substances. Kwangmin Shim received a poster prize for his poster entitled ‘A micro GC sensor system for detecting environmental gas mixtures’

Chia-Ling, Chiang completed her bachelor’s degree in Department of Biomedical Engineering at Chung Yuan Christian University in 2021. She then earned her master’s degree in Department of Biomedical Engineering at National Taiwan University in 2023, joining Dr. Chii-Wann, Lin research team. During her master’s studies, under the co-supervision of Dr. Nan-Fu, Chiu from the Institute and Undergraduate Program of Electro-Optical Engineering at National Taiwan Normal University, she focused on the feasibility study of surface plasmon resonance-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, successfully applying it to detect the heparin-platelet factor 4 protein complex. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD. in the Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics at National Taiwan University, with research focusing on optical detection techniques for cells and tissues, as well as the design and application development of microfluidic chips. Chia-Ling Chiang received a poster prize for her poster entitled ‘Challenges in Surface Plasmon Resonance Detection Limits: Precision Measurements Based on Fluid Control and Light Wavelength Stability’

Hikaru Tago received his master’s degree in 2024 and is advancing his research in the Ph.D. course of the Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan. His research focuses on developing a pathogen detection system by integrating image analysis with deep learning. He has already published a paper on this topic as the first author in an international academic journal. Hikaru Tago received a poster prize for his poster entitled ‘High-throughput microbial species identification by image sensor-based colony fingerprinting system’

Frontiers in materials discovery – innovations and challenges in machine learning and artificial intelligence

Submit your work before 28 March 2025

Materials Horizons, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C and Materials Advances are pleased to announce an open call for papers for a joint cross-journal collection on ‘Frontiers in materials discovery – innovations and challenges in machine learning and artificial intelligence’.

Automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence has enabled new frontiers in materials discovery. The advent of high-throughput calculations and the creation of comprehensive materials property databases, machine learning and AI are now equipped to navigate vast compositional spaces and effortlessly and rapidly predict physical properties. At the same time, automated laboratories are driving a revolution in synthetic methodologies. However, amidst these transformative developments lie specific challenges intrinsic to the autonomous discovery of materials. Interpreting characterization data is problematic, successfully synthesizing materials within lesser-known chemical spaces that have been identified by machine learning remains rare, and navigating the complexities of addressing crystal defects and disorder through simulation and synthetic processes is demanding. Much work remains to be done.

Guest Edited by Dr Jakoah Brgoch (University of Houston, USA), Dr Alex Ganose (Imperial College London, UK), Professor Janine George (Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Germany, and University of Jena, Germany), Dr Kedar Hippalgaonkar (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Professor David Scanlon (University of Birmingham, UK), this themed collection convenes innovative research spanning various disciplines, including materials science, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, statistics, and robotics, with the aim of stimulating discussions and fostering novel collaborations. These interdisciplinary connections are essential for developing new AI-driven algorithms, automated processes, and human-robot collaborations crucial to enhancing the data-driven scientific workflow necessary for material discovery. A multitude of topics are explored, such as generative AI for material design, machine learning potentials, foundation model development, autonomous experimental and computational workflows, the seamless integration of chemical and physical insights into AI, automated material identification post-synthesis, large language models (LLMs), and the utilization of extensive, multi-modal materials data. Together, this collection will showcase recent advancements, spur the emergence of new ideas and partnerships, and define the prospects and challenges necessary to further this dynamic research field.

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• Generative AI for material design
• Machine learning
• Foundation model development
• Autonomous experimental and computational workflows
• Integration of chemical and physical insights into AI
• Automated material identification post-synthesis
• large language models (LLMs)
• Multi-modal materials data

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

How to submit

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

This open call is open for submissions of:

• Full Papers
• Communications

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

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, please submit your article directly through the journal submissions platform. Please quote the themed collection code XXMatDis25 when prompted in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and mention that this is in response to the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection.

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

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

We look forward to receiving your submission!

We are delighted to announce this open call for papers to contribute to a themed collection for Journal of Materials Chemistry C on Transport in Organic and Hybrid Semiconductors, guest edited by Dr Oana Jurchescu (Wake Forest University, USA), Dr Yuning Li (University of Waterloo, Canada), and Dr Simone Fabiano (Linköping University, Sweden). For more details about the Open Call and how to submit, see this blog post.

Dr Oana Jurchescu (Wake Forest University, USA)

Oana D. Jurchescu is a Baker Professor of Physics at Wake Forest University (USA) and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. She received her PhD in 2006 from University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA. Her expertise is in charge transport in organic and organic/inorganic hybrid semiconductors, device physics and semiconductor processing. She has received numerous awards for her research and teaching, including the NSF CAREER Award, the NSF Special Creativity Award, and the Pegram Award from the American Physical Society.

Dr Yuning Li (University of Waterloo, Canada)

Dr. Yuning Li is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo and a member of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN). He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in polymer materials from Dalian University of Technology in China in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and completed his Ph.D. in materials science at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) in 1999.

Before joining the University of Waterloo in 2010, Dr. Li gained extensive research experience at institutions such as Simon Fraser University, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC), and the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) at the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore.

Since 1999, Dr. Li has focused on printed electronics, particularly organic light-emitting diodes, organic thin-film transistors, and organic photovoltaics. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, with an h-index of 64 and more than 18,000 citations. His innovative contributions have also led to 76 U.S. patents and the commercialization of multiple products.

Dr Simone Fabiano (Linköping University, Sweden)

Simone Fabiano is an associate professor and docent in Applied Physics at Linköping University, Sweden. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Palermo in 2012. During his doctoral studies, he was a visiting scholar at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He then held postdoctoral positions at both Linköping University (2012-2015) and Northwestern University (2016-2017) before returning to Linköping University to establish his research group. In 2020, he founded n-Ink AB, a spinout company that focuses on developing n-type organic conductive inks, where he serves as the Chief Scientific Officer. His group at Linköping University primarily focuses on developing organic dopant-free conductors and mixed ionic-electronic conductors for printed electronics and neuromorphic hardware applications. He has received several awards, including the Swedish Research Council Starting Grant in 2017 and Consolidator Grant in 2023. He is also a Wallenberg Academy Fellow.

We are delighted to announce this open call for papers to contribute to a themed collection for Journal of Materials Chemistry C on Transport in Organic and Hybrid Semiconductors, guest edited by Dr Oana Jurchescu (Wake Forest University, USA), Dr Yuning Li (University of Waterloo, Canada), and Dr Simone Fabiano (Linköping University, Sweden).Organic and hybrid semiconductors have garnered significant interest due to their potential for flexible, lightweight, and low-cost electronic and optoelectronic devices. Understanding and controlling charge transport in these materials is crucial for advancing their applications. This Journal of Materials Chemistry C collection aims to showcase the latest breakthroughs in the fundamental understanding and technological advancements related to charge transport in organic and hybrid semiconductors.

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• Charge carrier mobility measurements and modeling
• Understanding the role of defects and impurities in charge transport
• Novel device architectures for improved charge transport
• Interface engineering for efficient charge injection and extraction
• Theoretical and computational studies of charge transport mechanisms
• Applications of organic and hybrid semiconductors in transistors, solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and other devices

Please consider contributing to this open call for papers for our upcoming themed collection on Transport in Organic and Hybrid Semiconductors to be published in Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

Submissions to the journal should contain chemistry in a materials context and should fit within the scope of Journal of Materials Chemistry C. Please see the journal’s website for more information on the journal’s scope, standards, article types and author guidelines.

This call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers

Open for Submissions until 25 March 2025

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly to the online submission service for Journal of Materials Chemistry C. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Transport in Organic and Hybrid Semiconductors collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed issue is not guaranteed.

Please also note that all submissions will be subject to initial assessment and rigorous peer review to meet the usual high standards of Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

Keith Butler studied an undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 2004. He then completed a PhD at UCL, graduating in 2010. Following this, Keith carried out post-doctoral research in the University of Sheffield and the University of Bath, working on simulations of photovoltaics and transparent conductive oxides.

During his time at the University of Bath, Keith became interested in machine learning for the discovery and analysis of new materials. In 2018 he moved to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory where he was involved in setting up the scientific machine learning group (SciML). In 2022 Keith moved to Queen Mary University of London as a Senior Lecturer in Green Energy Materials. In 2023 Keith re-joined UCL Chemistry as Associate Professor.

Keith’s research focuses on using a combination of data-driven methods (such as deep learning and Bayesian statistics) and quantum mechanics calculations to design new materials on computers and to help accelerate the experimental characterisation of materials. His group (the Materials Design and Informatics Group) work with other academics, national facilities and companies. Keith is a keen advocate of open science and open software and is involved in the development of several community packages. In his spare time, Keith is (overly) obsessed with fermentation; he keeps a stable of several kombucha SOCBYs and will probably try to pickle your lunch if you’re not careful!

An interview with Professor Butler

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

It’s a real honour to join this Advisory Board. I am a big fan of the RSC publishing journals and think that they have been a great service to the research community in materials chemistry over the years. So, to have an opportunity to contribute to these publications and to potentially help to shape how they develop is really exciting for me.

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

I work a lot with machine learning for materials modelling and characterisation and this is a very fast-moving field right now. I think that one of our biggest challenges is distinguishing the really important work from the noise or even worse from the work that is not properly done. As this tends to be highly interdisciplinary work, it is often hard for a single person to have the expertise to judge all aspects fully. A materials chemist may not know a variational autoencoder from a diffusion model, and likewise a computer scientist may not know a halogen from a pnictide. In this case, high-quality peer reviewed publication becomes more important than ever, providing a seal of quality that researchers know that they can trust.

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

I think that these are highly respected, widely read and trusted journals. When I think of following the latest in energy materials research (which is my main materials science interest) these are some of the first journals in my RSS feed. I know that my peers also follow these journals closely and respect the research that is published in them. So, I would say for high visibility with respectability, JMC A and Materials Advances are great places to publish. In addition, the very reasonable APCs for Gold Open Access are very attractive to me, as I am a big believer in Open Science, but find that it is sometimes a costly standard to meet. It’s great that the RSC makes open access more attainable to all researchers.

Can you tell us about one of your latest Journal of Materials Chemistry A publications?

One of my more recent publications was last year looking at hybrid halide perovskites. I’ve been working on these materials for probably about 10 years now and there is still so much about them that we are yet to properly understand. In this paper we were looking at a particular alloy of this system where the A-site of the perovskite is a mixture of formamadinium and methyl ammonium molecules and the X site is a mixture of iodine and bromine anions. This mixture is particularly interesting as it has been shown to increase the efficiency of solar cells made with halide perovskite absorber layers. The study uses a range of computational modelling techniques to look at this structure and reveals an interplay of the effects of the structure on the dynamic and thermodynamic properties of the halide perovskite alloys. This kind of atomistic understanding is critical as researchers strive to design more stable and efficient perovskite mixtures for cheap and effective solar cells.

Mixed-anion mixed-cation perovskite (FAPbI3)0.875(MAPbBr3)0.125: an ab initio molecular dynamics study Eduardo Menéndez-Proupin, Shivani Grover, Ana L. Montero-Alejo, Scott D. Midgley, Keith T. Butler and Ricardo Grau-Crespo J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022,10, 9592-9603. DOI: 10.1039/D1TA10860C

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

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

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

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

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

Taiki Yamaguchi is a Doctoral Course Student at the Graduate School of Pharmacy, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences. He is sponsored by the JST SPRING scholarship, which covers the cost of living and research expenses. His study focuses on nucleic acid and gene delivery systems using ultrasound-responsive nanobubbles. This system aims to treat cancer and central nervous system diseases. He was awarded Seven Star Pharmacist Candidate Award 2022 from the Nagai Foundation Tokyo.

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

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

Submit your work before 10 January 2025

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

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

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

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

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

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

How to submit

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

This open call is open for submissions of:

• Full Papers
• Communications

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

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

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

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

We look forward to receiving your submission!

New Journal of Materials Chemistry A Scientific Editor

Welcome to Sofía Calero

Journal of Materials Chemistry A is delighted to welcome Prof. Sofía Calero to the Editorial Board as a Scientific Editor. Please join us in congratulating Sofía on her new role and find out more about her in the interview below:

Sofía Calero is a professor of Applied Physics and chairs the Materials Simulation and Modelling group at the department of Applied Physics and Science Education, at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. Dr. Calero is part of the Board of Directors of the International Adsorption Society and the Spanish Adsorption Group, which she currently chairs. She is the author of over 300 refereed scientific publications  and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious scientific prizes and Awards, including the Marie Curie Excellence Award, ERC Consolidator Grant, Salvador de Madariaga Grant, Dutch VPP-KNAW grant, Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry awards for Young Researchers and later on for Scientific Excellence and the Irene Curie Grant. Her research involves the application of molecular simulation to industrially relevant systems and the development of force fields, algorithms and simulation methods to reverse-engineer properties of porous materials. What does it mean to you to join the Editorial Board, as a Scientific Editor on Journal of Materials Chemistry A? Joining the board as a Scientific Editor gives me the opportunity to be in touch with the most advanced science in the materials field. This is great for me, as I understand it would be for all those scientists who enjoy the work they do. What is the current biggest challenge you face in your field? There are many. In silico work on materials is now in a very good moment. Computers are faster and we are increasingly immersed in the development of efficient methodologies. Accurate and transferable force fields remain a challenge for many systems. Examples are amorphous and defective materials, challenging properties related to energy production and storage or, in the field of adsorption, large complex adsorbates that can lead to adsorbent phase transitions. Why do you feel that researchers should choose to publish their work in Journal of Materials Chemistry A? Because it is a very good journal, addressing some of the most emerging challenges for current materials. Can you tell us about one of your latest Journal of Materials Chemistry A publications? It was related to work to evaluate the performance of adsorption heat pumps and cooling systems (https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/ta/d3ta05258c). To do this, we combined adsorption data of alcohols in MOFs with a thermodynamic model, generating a process that allowed us to obtain, among other properties, the coefficient of performance, the working capacity, the specific heat or cooling effect and the heat released in the adsorption and desorption cycles. Furthermore, our process has the advantage of identifying the optimal conditions for each adsorbent-fluid pair.

Materials Advances was delighted to sponsor 3 prizes for Poster Presentations at the SNAIA CRISTMAS 2023 event which took place in the Chimie Paris Tech on 13-15 December 2023.

It was difficult for the organisers to pick the prize winners due to the exceptional quality of all the posters presented at the event – the prize winners below were “truly outstanding”!

	Victor Filatov, SkyLab AG, Switzerland Poster Presentation: “Towards a restoration of cotton fabrics: the research of a novel combination based on sucrose and malic acid for cross-linking fibres and colour retention during laundry washing cycles”
	Anastasia Novikova, Ben-Grunion University on the Negev, Israel Poster Presentation: “Hollow-Micro pillared Glass Fabricated on Hollow Joe Pye Weed-Inspired Tubes for Detecting Molecular Signatures”
	Abigail Bond, University of Leeds, UK Poster Presentation: “Towards the Liquid Crystal Chemical Sensor via Confinement Within a Stripe Pattern”

Congratulations to the winners from the Materials Advances team!

If you would like to attend the next edition of the event then visit the 2024 webpage here: https://cristmas.org/

SNAIA – CRISTMAS – Most Recent Innovations in Materials Science and Advanced Characterisation Methods

The 2024 event will provide a unique platform to meet, share knowledge and establish links between experts from academia and industry covering the most exciting emerging applications within fields of Photonics, (Opto)Electronics, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine, Engineering, Quantum Computing, and Art.