Call For Papers: Theranostic nanoplatforms for biomedicine

Guest edited by Nguyen T. K. Thanh, Sophie Laurent, Sylvie Begin-Colin and Teresa Pellegrino ‬‬

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for our latest online themed collection in Nanoscale on Theranostic nanoplatforms for biomedicine that is being guest edited by Professor Nguyen T. K. Thanh (University College London, UK), Professor Sophie Laurent (University of Mons, Belgium), Professor Sylvie Begin-Colin (University of Strasbourg, France) and Professor Teresa Pellegrino (Italian Institute of Technology, Italy).

For nanomedicine to fill its promise, either direct intratumoral injection or active targeting with affinity ligands to achieve favourable specificity and biodistribution profiles is critical for accurate detection, monitoring and therapeutic efficacy. Such smart approaches, when translated to clinical uses, will have a great impact on the management of cancer and other diseases to improve patient survival and quality of life. However, for further clinical translation of nanoplatforms, a key step is their scale-up.

This new collection in Nanoscale focuses on the design of multifunctional hybrid nanomaterials for theranostics in biomedicine, with a focus on the scaling-up of these nanomaterials for translational studies. The scope of this collection loosely aligns with an accompanying symposium held at the 2023 Spring E-MRS meeting: Symposium J – Design and scaling up of theranostic nanoplatforms for health: towards translational studies, in Strasbourg, from 29 May – 2 June 2023. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Design, synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles: inorganic, polymers, liposomes, dendrimers
• Targeting strategies
• Multimodal Imaging (e.g., MRI, MPI, SPECT, PET)
• Multimodal therapy (e.g., hyperthermia, curie therapy)
• Drug delivery
• Nanotoxicology
• In vitro and in vivo validation of nanoplatforms combining multimodal imaging and therapies
• Scaling-up strategies of nanoplatform synthesis
• New synthesis processes taking into account good manufacturing practice (GMP) and environmental considerations

This call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers

Open for submissions until 31 March 2024

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly through the Nanoscale online submission system. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Theranostic nanoplatforms for biomedicine collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and 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 also note that all submissions will undergo our normal rigorous peer review processes including an initial assessment prior to peer review, and that peer review and acceptance are not guaranteed.

If you have any questions about the journal or the collection, then Edward Gardner, the Development Editor for Nanoscale, would be happy to answer them. You can contact him by emailing the journal inbox.

With best wishes,

Professor Nguyen T. K. Thanh, University College London, UK
Professor Sophie Laurent, University of Mons, Belgium
Professor Sylvie Begin-Colin, University of Strasbourg, France
Professor Teresa Pellegrino, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy

Call For Papers: Fundamental processes in optical nanomaterials

Guest edited by Arindam Chowdhury, Eva Hemmer, Alison Funston and Jon Veinot ‬‬

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for our latest online themed collection in Nanoscale and ChemComm on Fundamental processes in optical nanomaterials that is being guest edited by Professor Arindam Chowdhury (IIT Bombay, India), Dr Alison Funston (Monash University, Australia),  Professor Eva Hemmer (University of Ottawa, Canada) and Professor Jonathan Veinot (University of Alberta, Canada).

Advanced optical nanomaterials are the building block to innovative technologies that have the potential to address societal challenges from energy to health. Optical nanomaterials offer solutions to more efficient energy harvesting and energy conversion technologies, to enhanced data storage and fast and secure telecommunication, or to more efficient and personalized biomedical approaches, to name just a few examples. To achieve the goal of real-life applications, better understanding of known processes and the discovery of new fundamental phenomena is key.

This special cross-journal collection in Nanoscale and ChemComm aims to look at new phenomena in optical nanomaterials, without the need for applications to be fully realized. We hope to feature research reporting new processes, phenomena and observations, and applications are welcomed but we are also excited to see reports of new and interesting fundamental science. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Luminescent materials
• Scattering materials
• Metamaterials
• Plasmonics
• Nanophotonics
• Fundamental processes in optical materials (although applications can be included)
• New techniques or methods of analysis
• Spectroscopy of materials
• Single-particle imaging
• Light interaction with nanomaterials in tissues

This call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers

Open for submissions until 31 July 2023

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly through the Nanoscale online submission service. or the ChemComm online submission service. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Fundamental processes in optical nanomaterials collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and 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 also note that all submissions will be subject to initial assessment and rigorous peer review to meet the usual high standards of the journals and acceptance is not guaranteed.

If you have any questions about the journal or the collection, then Edward Gardner, the Development Editor for Nanoscale, would be happy to answer them. You can contact him by emailing the journal inbox.

With best wishes,

Professor Arindam Chowdhury, IIT Bombay, India
Dr Alison Funston, Monash University, Australia
Professor Eva Hemmer, University of Ottawa, Canada
Professor Jonathan Veinot, University of Alberta, Canada

Call For Papers: Micro- and Nano-Motors

Guest edited by Martin Pumera, Xing Ma, Samuel Sánchez Ordóñez and Li Zhang ‬‬

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for our latest online themed collection in Nanoscale and Journal of Materials Chemistry B (JMC B) on Micro- and nano-motors that is being guest edited by Professor Martin Pumera (University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Czech Republic), Professor Xing Ma (Harbin Institute of Technology, China),  Professor Samuel Sánchez Ordóñez (Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Spain) and Professor Li Zhang (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong).

Micro/nano-motors (MNMs) are miniaturized devices or structures that can covert other forms of energy harnessed from the surrounding environment into mechanical motion. As an emerging technology with a highly multidisciplinary nature, MNMs involve research efforts from materials science, physics, chemistry, biomedical engineering, etc., and in virtue of their small size and controllable mobility, they have demonstrated revolutionary potential in sensing, biomedicine and environmental applications among others.

This cross-journal collection in Nanoscale and JMC B focuses on the use of micro- and nanorobots for a variety of applications. It is dedicated to the state of the art of micro- and nanomachines, with emphasis on the design and fabrication, propulsion mechanism, imaging, safety, and application of micro- and nano-motors in a variety of fields. This special collection aims to encourage research collaboration across fields to address critical challenges and promote the development of advanced MNMs towards practical and even clinical scenarios. Potential topics of this collection include but are not limited to:

• Design and fabrication of micro/nano-motors
• Fundamental understanding of micro/nano-motor systems
• Micro/nano materials or devices for analytical sensing
• Propulsion mechanism and motion control of micro/nano-motors
• Environmental applications of micro/nano-motors
• Micro/nano-motors for biomedicine
• Biocompatibility and biosafety of micro/nano-motors
• Bioimaging and in vitro / in vivo tracking of micro/nano-motors
• Biosensing micro/nano-motors
• Disease diagnosis enabled by micro/nano-motors
• Drug delivery using micro/nano-motors
• MNM-based therapeutic treatment
• Biofilm removal and beyond with micro/nano-motors

This call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers

Open for submissions until 31 July 2023

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly through the Nanoscale online submission service. or the JMC B online submission service. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Micro- and nano-motors collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and 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 also note that all submissions will be subject to initial assessment and rigorous peer review to meet the usual high standards of the journals and acceptance is not guaranteed.

If you have any questions about the journal or the collection, then Edward Gardner, the Development Editor for Nanoscale, would be happy to answer them. You can contact him by emailing the journal inbox.

With best wishes,

Professor Martin Pumera (University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Czech Republic)
Professor Xing Ma (Harbin Institute of Technology, China)
Professor Samuel Sánchez Ordóñez (Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Spain)
Professor Li Zhang (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

CO₂ capture and conversion

Guest edited by Elena Shevchenko, Ah-Hyung Alissa Park, Shouheng Sun and Tierui Zhang

We are delighted to introduce a new online collection published in Nanoscale on carbon dioxide capture and conversion, featuring exciting exciting research on advanced nanoscale materials and reactions!

Read the collection

Understanding CO₂ capture and conversion has been essential in our efforts to build a carbon neutral/negative society and to achieve energy sustainability. Recent studies have shown that CO₂ can be captured from industry waste in more energy efficient manners and be converted more selectively via various catalytic processes to reusable chemicals and fuels. This collection focuses on theoretical and experimental CO₂  capture and reduction through thermochemical, electrochemical, photochemical, photo/electrocatalytic, biological and inorganic carbonate-based approaches, and aims to collect the latest state-of-the-art progress made in CO₂ capture and conversion into a single online collection.

The guest editors, Professor Elena Shevchenko (Argonne National Laboratory, USA), Professor A.-H. Alissa Park (Columbia University, USA), Professor Shouheng Sun (Brown University, USA) and Professor Tierui Zhang (Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), introduce this collection in their editorial.

Read the introductory editorial

All articles in the collection are free to access until the end of March 2023. Read some of the featured articles below.

Recent advances in CO₂ capture and reduction
Kecheng Wei, Huanqin Guan, Qiang Luo, Jie He and Shouheng Sun
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR02894H

A review on ZnS-based photocatalysts for CO₂ reduction in all-inorganic aqueous medium
Yuxuan Meng, Guoping Liu, Guifu Zuo, Xianguang Meng, Tao Wang and Jinhua Ye
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR03703C

Enhancing the capacity of supercapacitive swing adsorption CO₂ capture by tuning charging protocols
Trevor B. Binford, Grace Mapstone, Israel Temprano and Alexander C. Forse
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR00748G

Yolk–shell-type CaO-based sorbents for CO₂ capture: assessing the role of nanostructuring for the stabilization of the cyclic CO2 uptake
Maximilian Krödel, Alexander Oing, Jan Negele, Annelies Landuyt, Agnieszka Kierzkowska, Alexander H. Bork, Felix Donat and Christoph R. Müller
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR04492G

Bimetallic RuNi-decorated Mg-CUK-1 for oxygen-tolerant carbon dioxide capture and conversion to methane
Timothy Zurrer, Emma Lovell, Zhaojun Han, Kang Liang, Jason Scott and Rose Amal
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR03338K

We hope you enjoy reading this collection and look forward to seeing how this field progresses! Please continue to submit your exciting work on carbon dioxide capture and conversion to Nanoscale.

Call For Papers: Nanozymes

Guest edited by Shaoqin Liu, Vincent Rotello, Asier Unciti-Broceta and Hui Wei

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for our latest online themed collection in Nanoscale and Journal of Materials Chemistry B (JMC B) on Nanozymes that is being guest edited by Professor Shaoqin Liu (Harbin Institute of Technology, China), Professor Vincent Rotello (University of Massachusetts, USA), Professor Asier Unciti-Broceta (University of Edinburgh, UK) and Professor Hui Wei (Nanjing University, China).

Nanozymes are nanomaterials with enzyme-like characteristics. They have been developed to address the limitations of natural enzymes and conventional artificial enzymes. Along with the significant advances in nanotechnology, biotechnology, catalysis science, and computational design, great progress has been achieved in the field of nanozymes since the discovery of peroxidase-like iron oxide nanozyme in 2007. Nanozymes have been explored for a variety of applications, ranging from biosensing and therapeutics to environmental protection and national security. To our knowledge, more than 400 laboratories from 35 countries are working on nanozymes. Notably, both the publications and citations on nanozymes have been growing rapidly, showing the enormous research interest from the field.

To further advance the field of nanozymes and highlight recent progress, we are delighted to invite you to contribute to this themed collection. We believe such a special collection will not only accelerate the development of the nanozyme field, but also attract more researchers to explore the hidden characteristics of nanomaterials for broad applications.

This call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers

Open for submissions until 1 May 2023

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly through the Nanoscale online submission service. or the JMC B online submission service. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Nanozymes collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and 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 also note that all submissions will be subject to initial assessment and rigorous peer review to meet the usual high standards of the journals and acceptance is not guaranteed.

If you have any questions about the journal or the collection, then Edward Gardner, the Development Editor for Nanoscale, would be happy to answer them. You can contact him by emailing the journal inbox.

With best wishes,

Professor Shaoqin Liu, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Professor Vincent Rotello, University of Massachusetts, USA
Professor Asier Unciti-Broceta, University of Edinburgh, UK
Professor Hui Wei, Nanjing University, China

Design and Function of Materials Nanoarchitectonics

Guest edited by Katsuhiko Ariga and Omar Azzaroni

We are delighted to introduce a new themed online collection published in Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances on nanoarchitectonics. This collection is dedicated to the creation of functional materials using nanoscale component units, encompassing fields such as nanostructured materials synthesis, supramolecular assembly, nanoscale structural fabrications, and materials hybridizations.

Read the collection here or Read the introductory editorial here

Here is a selection of articles from this collection. Many of the articles in this collection are gold open access and so they are free to access. The other articles have been made free to access until the end of November 2022.

Nanoarchitectonics for conductive polymers using solid and vapor phases
Yuya Oaki and Kosuke Sato
Nanoscale Adv., 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NA00203E

Controlled formation of carbon nanotubes incorporated ceramic composite granules by electrostatic integrated nano-assembly
Hiroyuki Muto, Yusaku Sato, Wai Kian Tan, Atsushi Yokoi, Go Kawamura and Atsunori Matsuda
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR01713J

Egg-yolk core–shell mesoporous silica nanoparticles for high doxorubicin loading and delivery to prostate cancer cells
Steffi Tiburcius, Kannan Krishnan, Linta Jose, Vaishwik Patel, Arnab Ghosh, C. I. Sathish, Judith Weidenhofer, Jae-Hun Yang, Nicole M. Verrills, Ajay Karakoti and Ajayan Vinu
Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR00783E

Find out more about nanoarchitectonics in Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Review by Professor Katsuhiko Ariga: Nanoarchitectonics: what’s coming next after nanotechnology?

We hope you enjoy reading this collection.

Call For Papers: Halide Perovskite Optoelectronics

Guest edited by Lakshminarayana Polavarapu, Maria Antonietta Loi, Haibo Zeng and Joseph M. Luther

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for our latest online themed collection in Nanoscale on Halide Perovskite Optoelectronics that is being guest edited by Dr Lakshminarayana Polavarapu (University of Vigo, Spain), Professor Maria Antonietta Loi (University of Groningen, Netherlands), Professor Haibo Zeng (Nanjing University, China) and Dr ‪Joseph M. Luther (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA‬).

Over the past decade, metal halide perovskites, both in the form of thin films and colloidal nanocrystals (NCs), have emerged as a leading candidate for optoelectronic applications because of their exciting properties including defect tolerance, long charge carrier diffusion lengths, high photoluminescence quantum yield, and facile fabrication using relatively low-cost precursors. We have witnessed a steep increase in the efficiency of perovskite optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, LEDs, and photodetectors in a short development time. Despite tremendous success in achieving efficiencies as high as those of classical semiconductors such as silicon and metal chalcogenides, perovskite optoelectronics are still suffering from long-term chemical and operational stability along with toxicity and scalability to large-area devices. Currently, perovskites (bulk and nanocrystals) and corresponding devices are undergoing further optimization regarding the composition of A, B, and X sites, surface passivation, optimization of the device architectures, interfaces, and charge transport layers, and their encapsulation. This special themed collection aims to provide a platform for the latest developments that address the challenges of halide perovskite optoelectronics. The topics of this collection, include but are not limited to,

• Composition engineering of bulk perovskite thin films for improving phase stability
• Synthesis of stable perovskite NCs by composition engineering, doping, and passivation
• Stable layered 2D (Ruddlesden–Popper (RP)) perovskite optoelectronics (solar cells LEDs, photodetectors, etc.)
• Perovskite solar cells with improved chemical and long-term stability, and efficiency
• Defect passivation of perovskite solar cells and LEDs
• Lead-free perovskite optoelectronics
• Device encapsulation
• Large-area devices

This call for papers is open for the following article types:

• Communications
• Full papers

Open for submissions until 15th December 2022

If you would like to contribute to this themed issue, you can submit your article directly through the journal’s online submission service. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Halide Perovskite Optoelectronics collection in the “Themed issues” section of the submission form and 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 also note that all submissions will be subject to initial assessment and rigorous peer review to meet the usual high standards of Nanoscale and acceptance is not guaranteed.

If you have any questions about the journal or the collection, then Edward Gardner, the Development Editor for Nanoscale, would be happy to answer them. You can contact him by emailing the journal inbox.

With best wishes,

Dr Lakshminarayana Polavarapu, University of Vigo, Spain
Professor Maria Antonietta Loi, University of Groningen, Netherlands
Professor Haibo Zeng, Nanjing University, China
Dr ‪Joseph M. Luther, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA‬