Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances welcome Dr Rachel Crespo-Otero to our Editorial Boards

26 Oct 2022

Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances are delighted to welcome Dr Rachel Crespo-Otero from Queen Mary University of London, UK to the Editorial Boards as a new Associate Editor.

Dr Rachel Crespo Otero obtained a PhD in Chemistry through a collaborative programme between the University of Havana and the Autonomous University of Madrid. Following two postdoctoral positions at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and the University of Bath, she joined the Chemistry department at Queen Mary University of London as a Lecturer in January 2015 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2019. Her research focuses on developing and applying computational techniques to understand excited states and nonadiabatic processes in organic materials with applications in photochemistry, solid-state lasers, OLEDs, and energy materials. She is particularly interested in combining modelling and experiments to aid the design of efficient materials.

‘I look forward to receiving your excellent papers and contributing to developing the journals’ content in areas such as photochemistry, organic materials and molecular modelling, amongst others.’

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

Organic room-temperature phosphorescence from halogen-bonded organic frameworks: hidden electronic effects in rigidified chromophores

Jiawang Zhou, Ljiljana Stojanović, Andrey A. Berezin, Tommaso Battisti, Abigail Gill, Benson M. Kariuki, Davide Bonifazi, Rachel Crespo-Otero, Michael R. Wasielewski and Yi-Lin Wu

Chem. Sci., 2021,12, 767-773 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC04646A

Excited state mechanisms in crystalline carbazole: the role of aggregation and isomeric defects

Federico J. Hernández and Rachel Crespo-Otero

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021,9, 11882-11892, DOI: 10.1039/D1TC02019F

Understanding the solid state luminescence and piezochromic properties in polymorphs of an anthracene derivative

Alex Aziz, Amir Sidat, Priyesh Talati and Rachel Crespo-Otero

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2022,24, 2832-2842, DOI: 10.1039/D1CP05192J

Join us in welcoming Rachel to our Editorial Boards!

Submit your best work to Rachel Crespo-Otero and our team of Associate Editors on Journal of Materials Chemistry C 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.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter, Facebook or by signing up to our E-Alerts.

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Special collection in memoriam of Prof. Susan Odom

20 Oct 2022

By Hannah Kerr, Deputy Editor.

This special collection across Materials Advances, Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Journal of Materials Chemistry C is in memoriam of Prof. Susan A. Odom, who sadly passed away on April 18, 2021.

Read the collection

Susan’s fundamental understanding of electro-chemical devices, coupled with her deep appreciation for materials chemistry, allowed her to push new boundaries. Amongst these were the development of new redox flow batteries, the design of lithium-ion batteries with redox active organic molecules, and the advancement of novel materials screening methods.

This special collection covers the topics that have been at the core of the scientific activity of Susan. As a chemist, she had a tremendous impact on the broad fields of organic electronics and electrochemical energy storage contributing research on the development of stable electro-active materials, the design of new electrodes and electrolytes for electro-chemical devices, the establishment of understanding of electron transfer reactions and, generally, the synthesis of new conjugated organic materials.

Guest edited by Veronica Augustyn, Kelsey B. Hatzell, Malika Jeffries-El, Jodie Lutkenhaus, and Natalie Stingelin.

All of the articles in the collection are free to access until 30^th November, 2022. Articles in Materials Advances will always be free to access. A small selection of articles from the issue is provided below.

Introduction to the special collection in memoriam of Susan A. Odom (16 November 1980–18 April 2021)
Veronica Augustyn, Kelsey B. Hatzell, Malika Jeffries-EL, Jodie L. Lutkenhaus and Natalie Stingelin
Mater. Adv., 2022, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/D2MA90085H

On the challenges of materials and electrochemical characterization of concentrated electrolytes for redox flow batteries
Alexis M. Fenton, Jr, Rahul Kant Jha, Bertrand J. Neyhouse, Aman Preet Kaur, Daniel A. Dailey, Susan A. Odom and Fikile R. Brushett
J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022, 10, 17988-17999 DOI: 10.1039/D2TA00690A

Functionalized anthrathienothiophenes: synthesis, properties, and integration into OFETs
Garrett Fregoso, Gehan S. Rupasinghe, Maryam Shahi, Karl Thorley, Sean Parkin, Alexandra F. Paterson and John Anthony
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/D2TC02977D

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New Collection: Advances in Materials Characterisation

20 Oct 2022

By Hannah Kerr, Deputy Editor.

We are delighted to share with you a new collection of articles highlighting some of the most popular recent articles published in Materials Advances on the characterisation of materials. Containing both reviews and original research, the collection includes work on new characterisation methods as well as applications to a variety of systems from MOFs to nanomaterials.

Read the collection

Below is a snapshot of some of the papers in the collection. We hope you enjoy reading these gold open access articles, which are all free to access.

Review

The emergence of mass spectrometry for characterizing nanomaterials: atomically precise nanoclusters and beyond
Clothilde Comby-Zerbino, Xavier Dagany, Fabien Chirot, Philippe Dugourd and Rodolphe Antoine
Mater. Adv., 2021, 2, 4896-4913
DOI: 10.1039/D1MA00261A

Communication

The surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering of dye molecules adsorbed on two-dimensional titanium carbide Ti₃C₂T_x (MXene) film
Satheeshkumar Elumalai, John R. Lombardi and Masahiro Yoshimura
Mater. Adv., 2020, 1, 146-152
DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00091D

Paper

Effect of conductivity, viscosity, and density of water-in-salt electrolytes on the electrochemical behavior of supercapacitors: molecular dynamics simulations and in situ characterization studies
Débora A. C. da Silva, Manuel J. Pinzón C., Andresa Messias, Eudes E. Fileti, Aline Pascon, Débora V. Franco, Leonardo Morais Da Silva and Hudson G. Zanin
Mater. Adv., 2022, 3, 611-623
DOI: 10.1039/D1MA00890K

Visit our website – rsc.li/materials-advances

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Open call for submissions: Materials, Physical and Biological Chemistry of Protein Cages

10 Oct 2022

By Natalie Cotterell, Development Editor.

Journal of Materials Chemistry B are delighted to announce an open call for submissions to our themed collection on ‘Materials, Physical and Biological Chemistry of Protein Cages’.

Guest Edited by:

Prof. Jeroen Cornelissen (University of Twente, the Netherlands)

Prof. Feng Li (Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)

Dr Frank Sainsbury (Griffith University, Australia)

Protein cages are highly ordered macromolecules that can be genetically encoded and chemically modified. They are characterized by well-defined structures, controllable self-assembly, capacity for cargo loading, and facile chemical or genetic engineering. Protein cages hold great potential as versatile platforms in diverse fields. Applications include biomedicine and drug delivery; enzymology and biocatalysis; bioinspired materials and templates for inorganic chemistry. These applications are underpinned by fundamental science drawing on the fields of biological chemistry, biophysics, physical chemistry, and computational chemistry.

In this context, it is pertinent to compile this themed collection on the materials, physical and biological chemistry of protein cages. To this end, this themed collection of Journal of Materials Chemistry B aims at providing a platform for recent developments in this rapidly evolving field of protein cages including, de novo design, biophysics of self-assembly, permeability, biocatalytic nanoreactors, artificial organelles, delivery of bioactive molecules, bioimaging and biosensing, multifunctional nanodevices and other applications. We hope that readers find this themed collection informative and that it will act as an up-to-date insight into the fascinating potential of protein cages in chemistry.

Submissions to the journal should fit within the scope of Journal of Materials Chemistry B– Please see the journal website for more information on the journal’s scope, standards, article types and author guidelines.

Submission Deadline: 1 February 2023

We strongly encourage you to submit an original research article. If you are interested in submitting a review-type article, please contact the Editorial Office in the first instance with a proposed title and abstract as initial approval is required before submission to limit the number of review-type articles and avoid potential topic overlap.

All submissions will undergo a rigorous initial Editorial assessment as to suitability for the journal before potential peer review. Please note that peer review and acceptance of your submission will not be guaranteed. All accepted articles will be added to the online web collection as soon as they are published and will be featured in the next available issue of Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

Manuscripts can be submitted here https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jmchemb

Please add a “note to the editor” in the submission form when you submit your manuscript to say that this is a submission for the themed collection. The Editorial Office and Guest Editors reserve the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of the collection and inclusion of accepted articles in the collection is not guaranteed.

We look forward to receiving your submissions for this collection!

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Emerging Investigators in materials science

29 Sep 2022

By Geraldine Hay, Deputy Editor.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C are pleased to present the Emerging Investigator themed issues highlighting the rising stars of materials chemistry research in 2022.

These issues showcase the very best work from materials chemists in the early stages of their independent career. Each contributor was recommended by experts in their fields as carrying out work with the potential to influence future directions in materials chemistry. Congratulations to all the outstanding researchers featured!

Read each collection below:


Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigators	Journal of Materials Chemistry B Emerging Investigators	Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators

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Congratulations to poster prize winners at the International Materials Research Congress (IMRC2022)

22 Sep 2022

By Rose Wedgbury Ph.D., Development Editor.

Materials Horizons, Materials Advances, Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale, Nanoscale Advances, and Digital Discovery sponsored poster prizes at the International Materials Research Congress (IMRC2022). Congratulations to all the winners as detailed below:

Jorge Aarón Castillo Hernández, Tecnológico Nacional de México – Instituto Tecnológico de Pachuca

Effect Of The Post-Curing Temperature In The Wear Resistance Of Composites Obtained By Vacuum Infusion Process

Jorge Aarón Castillo Hernández is a mechanical engineer currently studying a Mechanical Engineering masters degree at the Instituto Tecnológico de Pachuca. He is currently working with composite materials doing changes in some parameters during their fabrication and characterizing their mechanical properties but also the changes in their microstructure. He has more than five years of experience as a mechanical design engineer into which he has three years of experience as a tooling design engineer in aeronautics. He has interest in composite materials, design engineering, and rapid prototyping.

Ashok Adhikari, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN

A New Approach Employed In The Scaps-1D Simulation For Modeling The Cigse Thin Film Solar Cells

Samuel Eduardo Salud Ordon, Universidad del Istmo

Relationship Between Hydrogen Diffusivity And Microhardness In A Tempered Experimental V-Mo Steel

I was born in a small town in the Istmo de Tehuantepec region in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Since I was little I have always been curious to learn, I like to read and know about many topics, curiosity has been one of my virtues until now. All my student life has been developed in public schools in the cities near my town, throughout this journey I have met valuable people who have taught me a lot. In the last stage of my professional training I met the one who is now my thesis advisor, Dr. Edgar López Martínez, from the beginning I was curious about his line of research, this led me to investigate more about the subject and in the end decide to develop a project with him. Thanks to the formation of the UNISTMO SMMater student chapter within my university, I had the opportunity to be awarded a scholarship by the Mexican Society of Materials (Sociedad Mexicana de Materiales) as a student monitor to participate in the XXX International Material Research Congress in Cancun, Mexico where I applied for the Best Student Poster Award obtaining third place in the competition. This award has been a great motivation to continue pursuing my goals.

Oscar Luis Quintero Lizárraga, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Synthesis Of Bismuth Halide Perovskite Photocatalysts To Produce Renewable Fuels From CO2 Photoreduction

Oscar L. Quintero-Lizárraga is a Chemical Engineer who received his bachelor’s degree in 2021 from the National Technological Institute of Mexico. He is now studying for his M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León under the tutoring of Dr. Leticia M. Torres-Martínez and Dr. Edith Luévano-Hipólito. His current research interests focus on the photoconversion of atmospheric pollutants and the development of sustainable sources of energy.

Gloria I. Siller-Monroy, UPIITA – Instituto Politécnico Nacional

A Facile One-Pot Microwave-Assisted Hydrothermal Synthesis Of Bivo4 With Application In Ciprofloxacin Degradation

Luz Karyme del Real Herrera, Universidad Tecnológica de Tulancingo

A Novel Green Synthesis For Graphene Using Microwave Hydrothermal Method

Cindy Viridiana Peto Gutierrez, UNAM

Fabrication Of Microelectrodes With Large Electrochemically Active Surface Area Based On Shrink Polymer Film And Rapid Low-Cost Prototyping Techniques

I am Cindy Viridiana Peto-Gutiérrez, born in a small city at the Gulf of Mexico coast. My first life-changing scientific experience was representing Mexico at the International Chemistry Olympiad 2011, and ever since I’ve wanted to find ways for scientific reasoning and knowledge to feel accessible to those around me. I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics and a MSc in Materials Science and Engineering from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM, México). I am currently a PhD candidate at the same graduate programme and a subject teacher at the Faculty of Sciences. My research focuses on the development of miniaturized, highly sensitive electrochemical sensors via low-cost benchtop fabrication techniques and its integration into microfluidic devices. The final goal is to monitor electroactive soluble analytes released by cultured endothelial cells excited with different shear stresses. Broadly, I’m interested in interdisciplinary research geared towards solving biomedical problems.

Arely Núñez Serrano, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Pectinase Immobilized On Core-Shell Magnetic Nanoparticles (Fe3O4@Sio2 ) For Juice Clarification

Arely Núñez is a Student-Researcher in Science, graduated in Food Science, with experience in the bio-production of metabolites from microorganisms and the development of new technologies for the food industry. PhD student in Applied Microbiology at Facultad de Ciencias Químicas of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León under the mentorship of Dr. Alcione García and Dr. Bernardo García, currently working on magnetic nanomaterials for enzymatic immobilization.

Mian Muhammad Faisal, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Wood Waste-Derived Activated Carbon In Combo With Redox-Active Mesoporous Nimn-S Nanomaterial For Supercapattery Devices

Mr. Mian Muhammad Faisal is a young researcher currently developing hybrid supercapacitors or supercapattery based on various nanomaterials as battery-grade electrode material. He did his MS from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan in 2020. His research interests are electrochemical energy storage devices, supercapacitors, supercapattery, electrochemical biosensors, and hydrogen evolution reactions. His research work can be traced through the link mentioned below: https://scholar.google.com.pk/citations?user=u-kwHl8AAAAJ&hl=en

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Congratulations to the winner of the Electrochem2022 RSC poster prize!

20 Sep 2022

By Daniel Smith.

In September 2022, ElectroChem 22, organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry‘s Electrochemistry and Electroanalytical Sensing Systems interest Groups, and the Society of Chemical Industry‘s Electrochemical Technology group, took place. Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances were delighted to sponsor the poster prize.

We would like to congratulate the winner of the poster prize. Check out the award winner below:

The winner, Joanne Searle (pictured right), with Neil Robertson our Journals of Materials Chemistry and Materials Advances Associate Editor.

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Microneedles themed collection: Meet the Guest Editors

15 Sep 2022

By Natalie Cotterell, Development Editor.

Themed Collection: Microneedles

Meet the Guest Editors

Journal of Materials Chemistry B and companion journal Biomaterials Science are pleased to promote their themed collection on ‘Microneedles’.

This cross-journal themed collection on ‘Microneedles’ aims to bring together recent advancements in the field of microneedles that readers will find informative and useful. The collection includes work related to microneedle fabrication and development approaches, applications of microneedles that add a new dimension to existing core knowledge in the microneedles field, sensing applications and clinical studies that evaluate efficacy or other aspects of microneedle use in humans.

Read the collection here

The Guest Editors for this themed collection are: Ester Caffarel-Salvador, Ryan Donnelly, Harvinder Gill and Hyungil Jung

Find out more about the Guest Editors below:

Dr Ester Caffarel-Salvador
Chiesi, USA

‘Microneedles are no longer confined to transdermal drug delivery, they are also being used to deliver drugs to organs such as the eye and the gastrointestinal tract as well as for drug monitoring applications. I am particularly excited to see how microneedles are being employed in novel devices to help overcome the challenges of oral delivery of biologics.’

Dr. Ester Caffarel-Salvador is a multidisciplinary scientist with a background in biotechnology and biochemistry. At MIT, she developed a pill to administer insulin orally, now in clinical trials, which led the MIT Technology Review to recognize her as one of the 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2019.

After taking a mini-MBA at Harvard and working across startups, VCs, consulting, and pharmaceutical companies, Ester is now the Associate Director of Strategic Innovation for Rare Diseases at Chiesi USA. She is also a lecturer at MIT and an advisor to several startups. Ester speaks seven languages and is passionate about advocating on career development for women in science.

Prof. Ryan Donnelly
Queen’s University Belfast, UK

‘Why microneedles? Microneedles are one of the fastest growing areas of innovation in drug and vaccine delivery today. They offer the possibility of needle-free delivery of currently injectable medicines that could help overcome the COVID-induced backlog in healthcare provision globally. In developing countries needle-free vaccine administration would improve access to safe and effective vaccines for millions of people.’

Professor Ryan Donnelly holds the Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology at Queen’s University Belfast and is Director of QUB’s interdisciplinary research programme Materials & Advanced Technologies for Healthcare (MATCH). His personal research is centred on design and physicochemical characterisation of advanced polymeric drug delivery systems for transdermal and intradermal drug delivery, with a strong emphasis on improving patient outcomes. He is currently developing a range of novel microneedle technologies through independent research, but also in collaboration with several major pharma partners. He has obtained substantial UK Research Council, charity and industrial funding and authored over 600 peer-reviewed publications (H-index = 73), including 6 patent applications, 6 textbooks, 23 book chapters and approximately 300 full papers. He has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences. Professor Donnelly is Europe/Africa Editor of Drug Delivery & Translational Research and the Controlled Release Society’s Communications Chair. He has won the Academy of Pharmaceutical Science’s Innovative Science Award (2020), the Controlled Release Society’s Young Investigator Award (2016), BBSRC Innovator of the Year and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Pharmaceutical Research Meritorious Manuscript Award (2013 and 2022), the GSK Emerging Scientist Award (2012) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Science Award (2011).

Prof. Harvinder Gill
Texas Tech University, USA

‘The first microneedle paper was published in 1998. I am thrilled at this opportunity to co-edit a joint themed edition for Journal of Materials Chemistry B and Biomaterials Science to showcase the achievements that have been made in the field over the past nearly 25 years. By pairing these two journals for the themed edition, we have a unique opportunity of highlighting both the materials and manufacturing aspects, and the biological applications aspects of microneedles. I look forward to reading the outstanding work in the field from colleagues around the world.’

Dr. Gill is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA. His research interests are in the fields of immunoengineering and micro-nano medicine. He has expertise in delivery systems such as microneedles, pollen grains, polymeric micro-nano particles, and gold nanoparticles. He has a history of innovativeness, and of providing fresh and unique perspectives to research and medical problems. Dr. Gill is working towards the development of a universal influenza vaccine using nanoparticle systems to enhance vaccine efficacy. He is amongst the pioneers of microneedle technology and has produced seminal work in the field. He was also the first to propose use of pollen grains as “Trojan horses” for oral vaccination and has published original and seminal papers in this field, which has attracted other researchers. He is also the pioneer of the use of microneedles for allergen immunotherapy and his lab is currently developing microneedles for the treatment of airway and peanut allergen immunotherapies. This technology is being commercialized through a startup company called Moonlight Therapeutics, which Dr. Gill has co-founded.

Dr. Gill completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering with honors and a gold medal from Panjab University, India (1994). After graduation, he worked in the petroleum industry for seven years. Subsequently he obtained his doctoral degree in Bioengineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (2007). Dr. Gill received his postdoctoral training in the field of influenza vaccines at Emory University (2009). Dr. Gill has received numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2 award) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award for his pollen research, Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research Award, Barney E. Rushing, Jr. Faculty Distinguished Research Award STEM, Ed and Linda Whitaker Faculty Fellow Award, and Whitacre Engineering Research Award. For his accomplishments and contributions to Biomedical Engineering, he was awarded the Whitacre Endowed Professorship in Science and Engineering at Texas Tech.

Prof. Hyungil Jung
Yonsei University, Korea

‘Microneedles are truly an exciting platform for next generation drug delivery’

Hyungil Jung is a Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at Yonsei University, where he is also the Chair of the Bio & Living Engineering Major in Global Leaders College, as well as Director of the Institute of Bio-Medical Health Care Convergence and the Department Head of Integrative Biotechnology & Translational Medicine. He is also the founder and CSO of JUVIC Inc., a company developing microneedle-based products. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Yonsei University in 1993 and 1995, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2002. He worked at Caltech as a Postdoctoral scholar from 2002 through 2004 and then joined Yonsei University at 2004. His main interests lie in commercialization of microneedles and overcoming the pressing challenges in microneedle development for commercialization. During his spare time, his hobby is indulging in board games, his favorite being Baduk, a widely popular traditional board game in Korea.

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Open Call: Bioinspired Artificial Synapses and Neurons Based on Memristors

01 Sep 2022

By Hannah Kerr, Deputy Editor.

We are delighted to announce a new themed collection on bioinspired artificial synapses and neurons based on memristors, to be published in Materials Advances, a gold open access journal from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Guest Edited by Niloufar Raeis-Hosseini, Ruomeng Huang, and Sujaya Kumar Vishwanath.

Brain-inspired artificial synapses compute beyond the bottlenecks of von Neumann architectures by adapting highly sustainable information processing. Fabrication of artificial synapses in a physical device with the functionality of the biological neural network is an attractive research area. Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) analog circuits emulate the synaptic performance of hardware-based neural networks. Since the hardware implementation of neuromorphic computation systems based on CMOS consumes much more energy than a natural system, numerous devices have been studied to realize an effective neuromorphic computing system. Among the proposed devices, memristors have emerged as the most efficient candidates to emulate biological synapses with high learning speed.

Memristors are two-terminal nanoelectronic devices with low power consumption, sustainable scaling, cost-effectiveness, and superior computing efficacy. They process information and compromise various fundamental operations that surpass typically integrated circuit technology. The temporal switching recommends that memristors are capable of acting as a physical system that imitates the synaptic memory function more precisely than the CMOS system.

This themed collection aims to highlight the recent developments, opportunities, and challenges in memristors and their applications in neuromorphic devices. We will outline the recent advances in neuromorphic nanodevices based on memristors by focusing on their fabrication and characterization methods. We will emphasize emerging bioinspired memristive devices and their improved performance by device structure and applied pulses engineering. We will also present outlooks of nanoelectronic devices and nanomaterials such as 2D materials, hybrid perovskites, and natural polymers.

We welcome contributions on memristors and artificial synapses in the form of research articles, communications, and reviews in the following categories.

Novel nanomanufacturing and processing methods of memristors:

Fabrication and characterization of memristors, memtransistors, and memcapacitors
Novel top-down and bottom-up approaches for nanofabrication of memristors
Specified electrical and structural characterization techniques
Novel approaches to realize flexible or rigid electronic synapses
Novel nanomaterials and device structures to increase memristive device reliability and performance

Novel Memristive Materials:

2D materials such as graphene, phosphorene, and transition metal dichalcogenides
Renewable materials, including biodegradables and biocompatible materials
Organic and bio-electronic materials
Heterogenous structures with organic-inorganic hybrid materials
Flexible memristive materials

Emerging memristive devices and architectures:

Biomemristors
Optoelectronic memristors
Ferroelectric memristive systems
Spintronic memristors
Assimilation of nanomaterials in neuromorphic computing systems based on memristors

Memristive devices enabled neuromorphic computing applications:

Artificial synapses and neurons
Artificial synapses by renewable materials
Photonic and optoelectronic synapses
Artificial neural networks
Convolutional neural networks
Recurrent neural networks such as reservoir computing
Logic-in-memory system
Neuromorphic and bio-inspired circuits and systems
Explanation of operational principle of artificial synapses via modeling

Keywords: memristor, nanoelectronics, neuromorphic computing, artificial synapse, brain-inspired nanodevice

New submission deadline: Submit before 30 June 2023!

All submitted papers will go through the standard peer review process of Materials Advances and should meet the journal’s standard requirements as well as fit into the general scope of materials science.

Manuscripts can be submitted here https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ma

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Repair and re-use of the outer casing for a Lithium-ion battery cell

19 Aug 2022

By Hannah Kerr, Deputy Editor.

An infographic describing a new method to repair and recycle a Li-ion battery pouch

Benign solvents for recycling and re-use of a multi-layer battery pouch
Jean E. Marshall, Bethany Middleton, Dominika Gastol, Roberto Sommerville, Con R. McElroy, Emma Kendrick and Vannessa Goodship
Mater. Adv., 2022, 3, 4973-4981, DOI: 10.1039/D2MA00239F

Meet the authors

	Dr. Jean Marshall gained her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2008, for investigating surface-initiated polymer chemistry. Her subsequent research work includes postdoctoral work on stimulus-responsive polymeric materials, as well as industrial experience in novel polymers for ink formulations. Since joining the Warwick Manufacturing Group (University of Warwick) in 2019, she has worked on several projects, covering diverse areas including tailored polymers for use in Lithium-ion batteries, polymeric materials as part of a circular economy, and recycling of battery components.
	Dominika Gastol joined University of Birmingham in 2019 and has been involved in recycling of Li-ion batteries from EV since then. Her research activities cover development of material recycling streams combined with remanufacturing, automated methods of electrode deposition and advanced microscopic characterisation.
	Rob gained a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the university of Birmingham in 2017, where he worked on producing synthetic zeolites from fly ash. Rob worked at the University of Warwick for a year on Lithium-ion battery recycling under Professor Emma Kendrick, before returning to Birmingham to join the ReLiB project in 2018. Rob Sommerville is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with a focus on reutilisation of waste and the circular economy of Lithium Ion Batteries. He is currently a Faraday Institution Research Fellow working on the ReLiB (Recycling and Reuse of Lithium Ion Batteries) project funded by the Faraday Institution, looking at physical separation techniques in the recycling of lithium-ion batteries.
	Dr Rob McElroy gained his Ph.D in 2007 at Keele University working on the production of composite materials from copolymers incorporating renewable resources. In 2009 he joined Prof. Pietro Tundo’s Carbonate Chemistry Group at Ca Foscari University of Venice looking into applications of dialkyl carbonates. He joined the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, University of York as a PDRA in 2011 and has worked on a variety of projects including extraction and separation in supercritical CO2, greening of pharmaceutical chemistry, production of bio-derived polymers, production of bio-derived surfactants, running an industry facing club focusing on circular economy related research called RenewChem, development of new green solvents and solvent applications. His current role is looking at green solvents in electrode formulation and as deputy director of the Circa Renewable Chemistry Institute.
	Following 14 years working in industry as a plastic engineer, Dr. Vannessa Goodship joined WMG, University of Warwick in 1997. She gained a PhD in 2002 on multi-material injection moulding and has continued working across multiple sectors on polymer related topics at the academic and industry interface.
	Prof Emma Kendrick is Professor of Energy Materials, lead of the Energy Materials Group (EMG) in the School of Metallurgy and Materials and co-director of the Centre for Energy Storage (BCES) at the University of Birmingham (UoB). Her research focus is upon sustainable energy storage technologies, the objective to understand the science and engineering principles which underpin manufacturing and lifetime. Before UoB, she spent two years as Reader in WMG, University of Warwick, and before academia, she led innovations in the battery industry. Latterly as Chief Technologist in Energy Storage at SHARP Laboratories of Europe Ltd (SLE) and prior to that for two highly innovative lithium-ion battery SMEs, Fife Batteries Ltd and Surion Energy Ltd. She completed her PhD in Ceramics at Ceram Research and Keele University, MSc in New Materials at University of Aberdeen, and BSC in chemistry from the University of Manchester.

An interview with Dr. Jean Marshall:

a) What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I am currently gaining a lot of new knowledge about how lithium-ion batteries work and how complex they are as chemical systems. The electrochemistry of batteries is not necessarily an obvious area for a polymer chemist, but batteries are enormously complicated and there is a lot of scope for experimenting with novel materials in this area. The most difficult challenge here is deciding which research question to tackle first!

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

Materials Advances is an excellent ‘home’ for our work. Open access publishing is great for us as academics and publishing with an RSC journal lends articles good credibility.

c) Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Some researchers prefer to have laser-focus on one niche subject, and that’s definitely the approach that’s encouraged for gaining a PhD. However, in my ‘postdoctoral life’ I’ve definitely found that the most productive projects are really collaborative. So, my advice is to collaborate with as many people as possible, and make sure that they aren’t all in your direct field of research. The more people you talk to, the more you can bounce ideas around, and you’ll find yourself with far more new avenues to explore.

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Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances welcome Dr Rachel Crespo-Otero to our Editorial Boards

Special collection in memoriam of Prof. Susan Odom

Read the collection

New Collection: Advances in Materials Characterisation

Open call for submissions: Materials, Physical and Biological Chemistry of Protein Cages

Emerging Investigators in materials science

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C are pleased to present the Emerging Investigator themed issues highlighting the rising stars of materials chemistry research in 2022.

Read each collection below:

Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigators

Journal of Materials Chemistry B Emerging Investigators

Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators

Congratulations to poster prize winners at the International Materials Research Congress (IMRC2022)

Congratulations to the winner of the Electrochem2022 RSC poster prize!

Microneedles themed collection: Meet the Guest Editors

Open Call: Bioinspired Artificial Synapses and Neurons Based on Memristors

New submission deadline: Submit before 30 June 2023!

Repair and re-use of the outer casing for a Lithium-ion battery cell

An infographic describing a new method to repair and recycle a Li-ion battery pouch

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