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.

Will you be attending ACS Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Atlanta next week?

If so, we warmly welcome you to join our exciting session featuring cutting-edge talks from leading international researchers in the field of sustainability science, and representatives from RSC journals.

In addition to these exciting scientific talks, our speakers will take part in panel discussions examining key themes relevant to how the scientific community can help accelerate the transition to net-zero and build a more sustainable world through solutions-focussed chemistry – come and join the conversation!

Symposium details

Title: RSC Showcase Symposia: Building A More Sustainable World Through Solutions-Focused Chemistry
When: Wednesday 5^th June, 9:30am
Where: Oakwood B Room; Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia

Speakers and Talk titles 

Fran Kerton, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

Chemical conversations for a sustainable future

Adam Lee, Griffith University, Australia

Catalysing sustainable chemical manufacturing

Maria Elena Rivas, Johnson Matthey Technology Centre, UK

Mechanochemistry in Johnson Matthey

Natalie Stingelin, Georgia Tech, USA

Cool plastics for Energy Sustainability

Antonio Facchetti, Georgia Tech, USA

Sustainable synthesis of new mixed ionic-electronic conductors & devices

Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, Georgia Tech, USA

Phase transformations via surface defects in halide perovskites

Furthermore, RSC Sustainability and EES Catalysis Executive Editor, Emma Eley, will be present for the full duration of the conference and will be pleased to talk to you about your research and answer any questions that you may have about publishing in RSC journals. Stop by stand 10 in the exhibition hall to discover more about RSC Publishing, or get in touch by email to arrange a meeting with Emma.

We hope that you will be able to join us at this exciting session!

Journal of Materials Chemistry A,  Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Horizons were delighted to sponsor the recent Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE) workshop at the SPIE Photonics Europe conference held in Strasbourg, France from 7 – 11 April 2024. The journals sponsored a wonderful networking event that allowed speakers and up-and-coming researchers and students to meet and share ideas in an informal setting.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Materials Horizons also sponsored two prizes for emerging researchers at the conference. These prizes were awarded by Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances Editor-in-Chief Natalie Stingelin. Congratulations to Olivier Bardagot and Fabiola Faini for being awarded the prizes!

Promoting women in science is a crucial and necessary step to reach the UN sustainability goals. Regardless of your gender and academic position, you can contribute to accelerating this positive change. This idea of “everyone can and should be involved” is dear to Prof. Olivier Bardagot, a young researcher of the CNRS-University of Strasbourg (France) working in the polymer department of the ICPEES institute led by Prof. Nicolas Leclerc. Physicist by training (Phelma and Imperial College London), Olivier opened himself to organic synthesis and polymer design thanks to the mentorship of Prof. Renaud Demadrille during his PhD (CEA Grenoble, France). With this rare background, he thrived under the supervision of Prof. Natalie Banerji by developing organic electrochemical transistors during a 3-year post-doctoral stay at the University of Bern (Switzerland). Established as a permanent PI since a year, Olivier is now developing a diverse research group where the potential of scientists can flourish in a widely interdisciplinary environment supported by the Strasbourg Organic Electronic Consortium (STELORG). His group is currently focusing on controlling the nanoscale and microscale organization of semiconducting polymers to optimize their chemical and electrochemical doping for thermoelectric and bioelectronic applications. If you have common research interests, do not hesitate to contact him at: olivier.bardagot@cnrs.fr. Olivier was awarded a prize for his exceptional contribution to the WiRE workshop, sponsored by Materials Horizons.

Fabiola Faini is a Ph.D. fellow in Giulia Grancini’s group at the University of Pavia, Italy. She obtained her master’s degree in Physics of Matter in 2021, working on the optical properties of low-dimensional perovskite thin films. Her research interest spans from fundamental photophysical investigation of charge carriers dynamics in low-dimensional perovskite thin films to their rational application in operating perovskite solar cells. With her talk titled “Tilting the crystal growth of 2D Perovskites: a tool for breaking wide band gap perovskite solar cell efficiency”, she has been awarded a prize by Journal of Materials Chemistry A during the SPIE conference.

We are pleased to announce this open call for papers for our upcoming themed collection on Rare Earth Materials to be published in Journal of Materials Chemistry C. For more details about the themed collection, including how to submit, please visit this blog post.

This collection is guest edited by:

Professor Ashlee Howarth (Concordia University, Canada)

Ashlee J. Howarth is an Associate Professor and Concordia University Research Chair at Concordia University in Montréal. She was born and raised in London, Ontario. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario in 2009, and then went on to do her PhD in inorganic materials chemistry at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Michael O. Wolf. Before joining the faculty at Concordia, she completed an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University with Joseph T. Hupp and Omar K. Farha. At Concordia, the Howarth group is focused on the design and synthesis of rare-earth cluster-based metal–organic frameworks targeting applications in pollution remediation, catalysis, drug delivery, X-ray detection, and chemical sensing.

Professor Takao Mori (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan)

Takao Mori received his PhD in 1996 at Univ. Tokyo, Dept. Physics. He is a Field Director at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan. Professor of the Univ. Tsukuba Graduate School and elected Board Member of the International Thermoelectric Society (ITS) and ITS President from July 2023. Mori is a Senior Editor of Materials Today Physics, an Editorial or Advisory Board Member of Journal of Solid State Chemistry, Advances in Applied Ceramics, Device, Journal of Materiomics, Joule. His current research interests include development of thermoelectric materials and enhancement principles, magnetism, synthesis and properties of borides, inorganic materials. He has published over 350 papers, 25 book chapters, and 35 patents.

Professor Zhiguo Xia (South China University of Technology, China)

Zhiguo Xia is a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China. He obtained his PhD degree (Chemistry) in 2008 from Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His current research interests focus on the inorganic luminescence materials, including the rare earth doped phosphors and the luminescent metal halides, and mainly developed their structural design, synthesis and discovery and structure-property correlation investigations. Dr. Zhiguo Xia has published over 200 peer reviewed publications (h-index of 87), and 5 book chapters. He is an associated editor of “Journal of Materials Chemistry C from 2022”.

Open call for papers – Rare Earth Materials

Submit your work by 6 September 2024

We are pleased to announce this open call for papers for our upcoming themed collection on Rare Earth Materials to be published in Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

This collection is guest edited by Professor Ashlee Howarth (Concordia University, Canada), Professor Takao Mori (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan), Professor Zhiguo Xia (South China University of Technology, China).

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. Please see this blog post for further information about the guest editors.

For this open call, we welcome full Papers and Communications.

Open for Submissions until 6^th September 2024

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, please submit your article directly through the Journal of Materials Chemistry C submission service. Please mention that your submission is a contribution to the Rare Earth Materials collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call. Please do not mention the themed collection in your cover letter.

All submissions will be subject to assessment against the journal’s usual scope and standards criteria and sent for peer review only if appropriate. Accepted articles will be published online as soon as they are ready and added to the web collection.

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

We are delighted to announce that nominations are now OPEN for the prestigious 2024 Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship. Do you know an outstanding emerging scientist in the field of materials chemistry who deserves recognition? Nominate them today for a chance to win this respected award!

Established in 2010, this international lectureship honours early-career scientists who have made significant contributions to the field of materials chemistry, with previous recipients including Shaojun Guo, Christopher Bettinger, Henry Snaith, Maria Escudero-Escribano and last year’s winner Jovana Milić.

For more information and details on eligibility criteria and how to nominate a candidate, please visit the Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship webpage.

The deadline for nominations is 5 June 2024

Nominate a candidate now

Find out more about our 2023 Lectureship winner, Dr Jovana Milić, and our two runners-up, Dr Kwabena Bediako and Dr Laure Biniek or why not check out our fantastic 2023 shortlisted candidates.

You are of course welcome to circulate this information more widely with any colleagues who might be interested in making a nomination.

We look forward to receiving your nominations!

Interview with Professor Xiaowei Zhan (Peking University, China)

Scientific Editor, Journal of Materials Chemistry A

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

A: My group focuses on organic photovoltaics (OPV). The active layer in OPV device consists of electron donor and electron acceptor. Although fullerenes were prevailing acceptor materials in OPV from 1995 to 2015, I doubted if this choice was correct considering their fatal flaws such as weak visible light absorption. In 2006 my group started the non-fullerene OPV research. In 2015 we invented the milestone molecule ITIC and pioneered the concept of fused ring electron acceptor (FREA). Now around 350 research groups from >20 countries have utilized the FREA to fabricate OPV devices with the champion efficiency of >20%. The FREA has subverted previously predominant fullerenes, and is inaugurating a new era of the OPV field.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

A: Since efficiencies over 20% have been achieved for FREA-based OPV devices, the next challenge should be how to advance the field from lab to fab. Based on the unique features of OPV such as light weight, flexibility and semi-transparency, integration of OPV into special scenarios can make a breakthrough in commercialization of OPV. Through concerted efforts, practical application of OPV can be expected in near future.

What does it mean to you to have been appointed as Scientific Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry A?

A: It is my great honor and pleasure to serve the materials chemistry community in the field of renewable energy especially organic photovoltaics.

How do you feel about Journal of Materials Chemistry A as a place to publish research?

A: Journal of Materials Chemistry A is well recognized as one of renowned journals in chemistry and materials science, especially as one of the most important journals in the field of organic photovoltaics. I have co-authored 36 papers in this journal.

What is one piece of career-related advice or wisdom that you would like to share with early career scientists?

A: I think important personalities for scientific research include curiosity, creativity, uniqueness, devotion and persistence.

Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Advances are delighted to welcome Professor Myung-Han Yoon from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), South Korea, to our Editorial Boards as a new Associate Editor.

Professor Myung-Han Yoon

Myung-Han Yoon is a professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), South Korea. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry (1999) and Master’s degree in Physical Chemistry (2001) at Seoul National University, South Korea. Then, he moved to the United States and received his PhD in Materials Chemistry at Northwestern University (2006). After finishing his postdoctoral research at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, he joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering, GIST, South Korea as an assistant professor (2010) and was promoted to associate professor (2015) and professor (2018). He received the Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society (2007), the Excellent Research Award from the Korean Polymer Society (2018), the Excellent Research Award from the Korean Chemical Society (2018), and the Excellent Research Award from the Minister of Science and ICT in South Korea (2019). His research interests include biomedical and bioelectronic interfaces based on organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors, hydrogel and metal oxide materials.

Join us in welcoming Professor  Yoon to our Editorial Boards!

Submit your best work to Professor Yoon and our team of Associate Editors on Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Materials Advances now! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

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