Open Call for Papers – Reactivity and Self-Assembly in Confined Spaces

Guest Edited by Xavier Ribas Salamaña, Huan Pang, F. Dean Toste & Raul Hernandez Sanchez.

Nanoscale and Chem Comm are pleased to announce an open call for papers to an upcoming special collection on Reactivity and Self-Assembly in Confined Spaces. This collection is guest edited by Xavier Ribas Salamaña (IQCC, Spain), Huan Pang (Yangzhou University, China), F. Dean Toste (University of California Berkeley, USA) and Raul Hernandez Sanchez (Rice University, USA).

Reactions at confined sites generally exhibit high rates and exquisite selectivities that differ from those occurring in bulk solution. The confinement spot can be considered as a second coordination sphere of the catalyst, reminiscent of enzymatic active sites.  The orientation of the reagents and substrates is controlled by the special environment around the confined site leading to highly selective transformations. As such, structural constraints and weak interactions conspire to decrease activation barriers of precise reactions to furnish rapid chemo-, regio-, and stereoselective transformations. Therefore, shedding light on reactions taking place at confined spaces is crucial to tame their reactivity and add another level of control to catalyst design.

Reactivity and self-assembly in confined spaces would cover the behavior of chemical species within nanoconfined environments such as colloidal nanoparticle surfaces, polymeric nanosystems, coordination cage cavities, and nanopores within porous materials.

Open for submissions until 30 June 2025

How to submit

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection

1. Log into either the Nanoscale or Chem Comm online submission system.
2. Submit your article
3. Select your article type and under the “Themed issues” section in the submission form mention that it is an Open Call contribution to the Reactivity and Self-Assembly in Confined Spaces collection
4. Add a “Note to the Editor” that this is from the Open Call

The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of both the journal and the collection, and inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed issue is not guaranteed. Please note that all submissions will be subject to initial assessment and rigorous peer review to meet the usual high standards of Nanoscale and ChemComm. All articles featured in the collection must be in scope and as such final inclusion is not guaranteed and will be up to the discretion of the guest editors.

We look forward to receiving your latest work and considering it for this collection. Please do get in touch at nanoscale-rsc@rsc.org if you have any questions at all.

Nanocatalysis

Guest edited by Dr In Young Kim, Dr Michelle Personick, and Dr Zhiqun Lin.

Nanocatalysis represents an exciting subfield in nanoscience and nanotechnology which involves the use of nanomaterials and subnano-sized materials (nanoclusters, diatoms, single atoms) as catalysts for a wide variety of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic applications. Along with significant advances in nanomaterial design and synthesis assisted by machine learning, in-situ/ex-situ characterization techniques, and computational chemistry, the past several decades have witnessed a flood of research activities in this rapidly evolving area with most of the studies focusing on the effects of size, shape, chemical composition and morphology on catalytic properties and performance. This has led to the development of highly effective catalysts with enhanced activity, selectivity, and stability.

This special themed collection aims to provide a platform to showcase the recent progress and challenges in the field of nanocatalysis.

All articles in the collection are free to read until April 2025

Read the collection

We invite you to discover the latest research from collection and to read the introductory editorial written by guest editors Dr In Young Kim, Dr Michelle Personick, and Dr Zhiqun Lin.

Read the introductory editorial

All of the articles in the collection are free to access until April 2025. Read some of the featured articles below.

Single and dual-atom catalysts towards electrosynthesis of ammonia and urea: a review. Wenyu Luo, Jiawei Liu, Yue Huc and Qingyu Yan. Nanoscale, 2024,16, 20463-20483

Atomically precise Au and Ag nanoclusters doped with a single atom as model alloy catalysts. Shinya Masuda, Kosuke Sakamotoa and Tatsuya Tsukuda. Nanoscale, 2024,16, 4514-4528

Consecutive one-pot alkyne semihydrogenation/alkene dioxygenation reactions by Pt(ii)/Cu(ii) single-chain nanoparticles in green solvent. Jokin Pinacho-Olaciregui,  Ester Verde-Sesto,  Daniel Taton and  José A. Pomposo Nanoscale, 2024,16, 9742-9747

Neodymium niobate nanospheres on functionalized carbon nanofibers: a nanoengineering approach for highly sensitive vanillin detection. I.Jenisha Daisy Priscillal and Sea-Fue Wang. Nanoscale, 2024,16, 12459-12473

Nanoscale is a high-impact international journal, publishing high-quality experimental and theoretical work across the breadth of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Our broad scope covers cross-community research that bridges the various disciplines involved with nanoscience and nanotechnology.

We hope you enjoy reading this collection and look forward to showcasing more work on optical nanomaterials in the future. Please continue to submit your exciting work to Nanoscale.