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

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

Professor Eli Zysman-Colman

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

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

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

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

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

Professor Akon Higuchi

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

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

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

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

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

Professor Tharamani Nagaiah

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

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

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

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

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

Professor Jie Zheng

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

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

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

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

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

Professor Paolo Samorì 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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