Looking back at 2025

An overview of the exciting events, activities and news for Nanoscale Horizons from 2025.

Now that 2025 has come to an end, we look back at some of the exciting events, activities and news from Nanoscale Horizons. We are continually thankful for the nano community’s engagement, which has enabled the journal to continue to support our growing community. We look forward to another great year for the journal in 2026.

This year marked the beginning of our celebrations for the 10^th Anniversary of Nanoscale Horizons and we are excited to continue the celebrations into 2026. We invited you all to you to take part, contribute and enjoy our activities. We published a special anniversary collection to celebrate and thank our community, along with reflections articles from our inaugural authors, regional and community spotlights, and commemorative cover artwork. Read our blog to catch up on all of our celebratory activities and check back regularly for updates!

In 2025 we welcomed Jovana Milić (University of Turku, Finland) and Jun Fan (City University of Hong Kong, China)  to the Editorial Borad of Nanoscale Horizons.

Jin-Hong Park (Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea), Katsuhiko Ariga (National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan) ended their terms on the Editorial Board and transferred to the Advisory Board, and Jinlan Wang (Southeast University, China) was also welcomed to the Advisory Board.

This year saw the continuation of our Emerging Investigator series, which showcases the exceptional work published by early-career researchers in the journal. The series continues to regularly highlight the corresponding author of a recently published Communication article through an interview-style Editorial and this year we featured interviews with 9 early-career researchers.

In 2025 we published a range of exciting collections that celebrates and showcases research and researchers across our nanoscience and nanotechnology community. Explore these amazing collections below!

Find more Nanoscale Horizons publications in the RSC cross journal collections on our themed collections page or head to our blog for the latest news on all our collections!

This year we featured research on Emerging horizons in polymer applications in a collection guest edited by Nanoscale Horizons Community Board member, Calum Ferguson, and Materials Horizons Community Board member, Kostas Parkatzidis. Look out for more collections in 2026!

We were delighted to announce Jiang Zhou and co-authors, Ankur Solanki and co-authors, and Cristina Zavaleta and co-authors as the winners of our 2024 Outstanding Paper Awards.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the 2024 Outstanding Paper Award and we hope that you enjoy reading their outstanding articles as much as we did!

Discover our latest educational articles, addressing topic areas that are often misunderstood or require greater explanation, in the Focus Article Collection.

Finally, the Nanoscale Horizons has a new Development team in the Editorial Office. We’ll be attending conferences throughout 2026 and will be delighted to chat with you about publishing with the RSC. Look out for us at your next event!

Executive Editor	Deputy Editor	Development Editor
Jeremy Allen	Zifei Lu	Paul Scott

The Nanoscale Horizons team wish you a Happy New Year!

Announcing our Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Paper Award winners

Our annual Outstanding Paper Award recognises some of the exceptional work published in Nanoscale Horizons, and the authors behind those articles. The winners are chosen by the Editorial and Advisory Boards based on the science presented and the work’s potential future impact.

Discover our 2023 winners here

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the 2023 Outstanding Paper Award! We hope that you enjoy reading their outstanding articles as much as we did! Read more about the prize winners and their research in our Editorial. Our companion journal Materials Horizons has also announced its Outstanding Paper Award winners. You can read all of the Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons 2023 Outstanding Papers in our online collection.

Explore the full collection

To be eligible to receive a Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Paper Award you must have published an article in the journal in the previous calendar year. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and peer review as appropriate according to the journal’s guidelines. We would be delighted if you would consider Nanoscale Horizons for your next exceptionally high-quality and innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology submission. Find out more about the journal and submit your work now!

The most popular Nanoscale Horizons articles from 2023

We wanted to share with you some of the most popular articles published in Nanoscale Horizons over the last year, determined by their citations, downloads and altmetric scores.

Read the most popular Nanoscale Horizons articles

All of the articles in the collection are free to access until the end of February 2024. Discover some of the featured articles below.

Reviews

Interfacial built-in electric-field for boosting energy conversion electrocatalysis Hui Xu,* Junru Li and Xianxu Chu* Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NH00549B

Functionalizing nanophotonic structures with 2D van der Waals materials Yuan Meng, Hongkun Zhong, Zhihao Xu, Tiantian He, Justin S. Kim, Sangmoon Han, Sunok Kim, Seoungwoong Park, Yijie Shen, Mali Gong, Qirong Xiao* and Sang-Hoon Bae* Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00246B

Advances in Cu nanocluster catalyst design: recent progress and promising applications Sourav Biswas, Saikat Das* and Yuichi Negishi* Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00336A

Communications

Boosting efficiency of luminescent solar concentrators using ultra-bright carbon dots with large Stokes shift Jiurong Li, Haiguang Zhao,* Xiujian Zhao and Xiao Gong* Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D2NH00360K

Anti-PEG antibodies enriched in the protein corona of PEGylated nanocarriers impact the cell uptake Mareike F. S. Deuker, Volker Mailänder, Svenja Morsbach* and Katharina Landfester Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00198A

Phosphinecarboxamide based InZnP QDs – an air tolerant route to luminescent III–V semiconductors Yi Wang, Jack Howley, Erica N. Faria, Chen Huang, Sadie Carter-Searjeant, Simon Fairclough, Angus Kirkland, Jason J. Davis, Falak Naz, Muhammad Tariq Sajjad, Jose M. Goicoechea* and Mark Green* Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00162H

We hope you enjoy reading these popular articles and would be delighted if you would consider Nanoscale Horizons for your next submission.

Looking back at 2023

An overview of the exciting events, activities and news for Nanoscale Horizons from 2023

Now that 2023 has come to an end, we look back at some of the exciting events, activities and news from Nanoscale Horizons. We are continually thankful for the nano community’s engagement, which has enabled the journal to continue to support our growing community. We look forward to another great year for the journal in 2024.

Read our editorial looking back at 2023

Board updates

Professor Katsuhiko Ariga (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan), Dr Miaofang Chi (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA) and Professor Jin-Hong Park (Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea) joined the journal’s Editorial Board. We look forward to working with them to maximize the quality and impact of Nanoscale Horizons in the nano community.

Outstanding paper award

We were delighted to announce Seung Hwan Ko and his team, Ester Segal and her team, and Jordi Arbiol and his team as the winners of our 2022 Outstanding Paper Awards earlier last year.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the 2022 Outstanding Paper Award and we hope that you enjoy reading their outstanding articles as much as we did.

Emerging investigator series

This year saw the continuation of our Emerging Investigator series, which showcases the exceptional work published by early-career researchers (i.e., less than ten years post-PhD) in the journal. The series continues to regularly highlight the corresponding author of a recently published Communication article through an interview-style Editorial and this year we featured interviews with 8 early-career researchers.

If you are eligible and interested in submitting a paper for potential inclusion in the series, please contact the Editorial office for details.

International Women’s Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2023 we highlighted some of the excellent female researchers publishing impactful work in nanoscience in a special collection published in Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances. The collection featured work led by female scientists around the world and showcased the impact these leading individuals have on the research published within our nanoscience journals.

Explore our Women in Nanoscience collection

If you have published in Nanoscale Horizons in 2023, and either the first and/or corresponding author of your article is a woman, you can feature in our 2024 collection! Please contact the Editorial office with the title of your article, DOI and a headshot photo of the eligible author by 1 March 2024 if you wish to be included in the collection, which will be promoted this International Women’s Day, 8 March 2024. At the Royal Society of Chemistry, we foster a culture of inclusion of women from all walks of life and look forward to continuing to celebrate all of the wonderful women in nanoscience.

Community board updates

The Nanoscale Horizons Community Board provides a platform for early career researchers to share their experiences and ideas on scientific publishing. Over the summer, we requested nominations from the nanoscience academic community and were thrilled with the high calibre of candidates nominated. We were delighted to appoint 27 new members who, together with continuing members, make up a Community Board of 50 international researchers at different stages of their early careers, ranging from PhD candidates to Professors. Meet our new Community Board members below.

Community board picks

Working with our Community Board we launched a new series of Community Board Picks, short article summaries highlighting the most recent advances in nanoscience and sharing our Community Board’s unique expertise.

Electrifying H2O2 synthesis with g-C3N-based single atom catalysts Jungki Ryu* Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH90041J

siRNA-loaded DNA nanostructures restore endothelial leakiness Arun Richard Chandrasekaran* Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH90040A

Enhancing SERS activity with a pyroelectric-induced charge-transfer effect Xiaolu Zhuo* Nanoscale Horiz., 2024, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH90043F

Themed collection

We launched several special themed collections last year in collaboration with Materials Horizons and Nanoscale. We were delighted to publish so many outstanding articles on these important topics. Discover our 2023 collections below.

• New horizons in materials for energy conversion, optics and electronics. Guest edited by Jinlan Wang, Yuanjian Zhang, Seeram Ramakrishna and Guihua Yu.
• Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST). Guest edited by Yuliang Zhao, Zhixiang Wei, Chunying Chen, Qing Dai and Xinfeng Liu.
• Memristors and Neuromorphic Systems. Guest edited by Xiaodong Chen, Cheol Seong Hwang, Francesca Santoro and Yoeri Van de Burgt.
• Celebrating the 150th anniversary of Vanderbilt University. Guest edited by De-en Jiang, Janet Macdonald and Sharon Weiss.
• Graphene and 2D Materials in Healthcare. Guest edited by Laura Ballerini, Alberto Bianco, Kostas Kostarelos and Maurizio Prato.

Horizons symposium

The first Horizons symposium, organized by Nanoscale Horizons and Materials Horizons, was held in Berlin, Germany earlier this year and showcased a wide variety of cutting-edge work in the areas of electronic and photonic materials, and materials for energy applications, with chemists, physicists and materials scientists presenting their most outstanding work. We were delighted to arrange such a successful conference and look forward to sharing the details of our 2024 edition with you next year. We hope to see you there.

Outstanding reviewers

We also recognized the significant contributions that our reviewers have made to the journal by highlighting the 2022 Outstanding Reviewers for Nanoscale Horizons. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers for Nanoscale Horizons and acknowledge their incredible support and the dedication of their time to providing high-quality, timely and helpful reports on submissions to the journal.

“We are all aware that time is an incredibly valuable resource. All the more we are deeply indebted to our top reviewers who have invested their time to write valuable and high-quality reviews. Only with such reviews can Nanoscale Horizons be among the top journals and steadily grow in importance.” – Professor Dr Katharina Landfester, Editorial Board Chair

Focus articles

Finally, discover our latest educational articles, addressing topic areas that are often misunderstood or require greater explanation, in the Nanoscale Horizons Focus Article Collection.

Bimetallic core–shell nanocrystals: opportunities and challenges Chenxiao Wang, Yifeng Shi, Dong Qin and Younan Xia* Nanoscale Horiz., 2023, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00098B

Thank you for your continued support of Nanoscale Horizons and wish you a Happy New Year!

With best wishes,
Katharina Landfester, Editorial Board Chair
Katsuhiko Ariga, Scientific Editor
Wenlong Cheng, Scientific Editor
Miaofang Chi, Editorial Board Member
Yves Dufrêne, Scientific Editor
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Scientific Editor
Dirk Guldi, Scientific Editor
Jin-Hong Park, Editorial Board Member
Zhiyong Tang, Scientific Editor
Jinlan Wang, Scientific Editor
Miqin Zhang, Editorial Board Member
Michaela Mühlberg, Executive Editor
Heather Montgomery, Managing Editor
Edward Gardner, Development Editor
Natalie Cotterell, Development Editor

Announcing our Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Paper Award winners

Our annual Outstanding Paper Award recognises some of the exceptional work published in Nanoscale Horizons, and the authors behind those articles. The winners are chosen by the Editorial and Advisory Boards based on the science presented and the work’s potential future impact.

Discover our 2022 winners here

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the 2022 Outstanding Paper Award! We hope that you enjoy reading their outstanding articles as much as we did! Read more about the prize winners and their research in our Editorial. Our companion journal Materials Horizons has also announced its Outstanding Paper Award winners. You can read all of the Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons 2022 Outstanding Papers in our online collection.

Explore the full collection

To be eligible to receive a Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Paper Award you must have published an article in the journal in the previous calendar year. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and peer review as appropriate according to the journal’s guidelines. We would be delighted if you would consider Nanoscale Horizons for your next exceptionally high-quality and innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology submission. Find out more about the journal and submit your work now!

Looking back at 2022

An overview of the exciting events, activities and news for Nanoscale Horizons from 2022

Now that 2022 has come to an end, we look back at some of the exciting events, activities and news from Nanoscale Horizons. We are continually thankful for the nano community’s engagement, which has enabled the journal to continue to support our growing community. We look forward to another great year for the journal in 2023.

Read our editorial looking back at 2022

Board updates

Professor Michael Sailor (University of California, San Diego, USA) and Professor Sarah Tolbert (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) completed their final terms as members of the Nanoscale Horizons Editorial Board and joined our Advisory Board. We would like to thank them both for their excellent service to the journal and community over many years and look forward to continuing to work with them in their new role.

Outstanding paper award

We were delighted to announce Sara E. Skrabalak and her team, Jin-Hong Park and his team, and Katsuhiko Ariga as the winners of our 2021 Outstanding Paper Awards earlier this year.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the 2021 Outstanding Paper Award and we hope that you enjoy reading their outstanding articles as much as we did.

Outstanding reviewers

We recognized the significant contributions that our reviewers have made to the journal and highlighted the 2021 Outstanding Reviewers for Nanoscale Horizons. We once again thank all of Nanoscale Horizons’ reviewers and acknowledge their invaluable support in providing high quality, timely and helpful reports on submissions to the journal, thereby, ensuring that we continue to publish high quality articles.

“We sincerely thank our top reviewers for taking their valuable time to provide high quality reports on the papers and, therefore, ensure a high quality of publications for the journal. Only with their contributions can Nanoscale Horizons belong among the top journals in the field.” – Professor Dr Katharina Landfester, Editorial Board Chair

Community board collections

This year we featured research on antimicrobial materials and surfaces in a collection guest edited by Nanoscale Horizons and Materials Horizons Community Board members Ignacio Insua (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain) and Ignacio Martín-Fabiani (Loughborough University, UK).

Emerging investigator series

In 2022 we launched a new series on Nanoscale Horizons to showcase the exceptional work published by early-career (i.e., less than ten years post PhD) researchers in the journal. The series will regularly highlight the corresponding author of a recently published Communication article through an interview-style Editorial.

Our first Emerging Investigator in the series, Dr Huiyuan Zhu (University of Virginia, USA) spoke to us about her research, career advice and hobbies in our first Emerging Investigator interview. We then spoke to Dr Sukjoon Hong and Dr Joonmyung Choi (Hanyang University, South Korea) in our second Emerging Investigator interview.

If you are eligible and interested in submitting a paper for potential inclusion in the series, please do contact the Editorial office (nanoscalehorizons-rsc@rsc.org) for details.

Journal metrics

This year we were pleased to see that the Nanoscale Horizons’ impact factor increased to 11.684 in the 2021 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2022), with over 19.5k monthly downloads and 50% open access content. These are just a few of the many metrics that can be used to measure the journal’s reach, quality and impact.

Focus articles

Finally, discover our latest educational articles, addressing topic areas that are often misunderstood or require greater explanation, in the Nanoscale Horizons Focus Article Collection.

The Nanoscale Horizons team wish you a Happy New Year!

With best wishes,
Professor Dr Katharina Landfester, Editorial Board Chair
Professor Wenlong Cheng, Scientific Editor
Professor Yves Dufrêne, Scientific Editor
Professor Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Scientific Editor
Professor Dr Dirk Guldi, Scientific Editor
Professor Zhiyong Tang, Scientific Editor
Professor Jinlan Wang, Scientific Editor
Professor Miqin Zhang, Editorial Board Member
Dr Heather Montgomery, Managing Editor
Mr Edward Gardner, Development Editor

Congratulations to Nanoscale Horizons Scientific Editor Professor Dirk M. Guldi, who has received the 2022 Linstead Career Award in Phthalocyanine Chemistry as part of the 12th International Conference on Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines! The award is given to highly distinguished scientists, for the quality and trajectory of their research throughout their academic career.

Professor Dirk M. Guldi receives the 2022 Linstead Career Award in Phthalocyanine Chemistry. Pictured from left to right: Dr Benoit Habermeyer, Professor Karl M. Kadish, Professor Dirk M. Guldi and Professor Jonathan L. Sessler.