Contribute to a new themed collection in Nanoscale Advances

We are delighted to announce an open call for papers to our new themed collection focusing on nanocatalysis beyond CO₂ activation!

Guest Editors: Yude Su (University of Science and Technology of China, China) and Yanwei Lum (National University of Singapore, Singapore)

Electrocatalysis is crucial for facilitating the sustainable production of chemical feedstocks and chemical fuels. For example, CO₂ reduction to value-added chemicals has attracted significant research interest in recent years. Beyond this topic, research efforts are urgently needed to expand the spectrum of electrocatalytic reactions to enable more avenues for decarbonization. Hence, this themed collection will focus on important and upcoming areas of electrocatalytic reactions, including but not limited to nitrogen reduction, upgrading of biomass derived molecules and hydrogen peroxide production. Of interest here is the important role that nanoscience can play in the development of electrocatalytic materials to efficiently facilitate these reactions.

You are welcome to submit an original research article within the scope before 15 December 2023.

If you are interested in contributing to this collection, please get in touch with the Editorial Office by email at nanoscaleadvances-rsc@rsc.org 

Please note that article processing charges apply to all articles submitted to Nanoscale Advances if, following peer-review, they are accepted for publication. Details of the APC and discounted rates can be found here.

Call For Papers: Graphene and 2D materials in healthcare

Guest edited by Laura Ballerini, Alberto Bianco, Kostas Kostarelos and Maurizio Prato ‬‬

We are delighted to announce a high-profile online special themed collection on Graphene and 2D materials in healthcare to be published across Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances. The collection is guest edited by:

Prof Laura Ballerini, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, Italy
Dr Alberto Bianco, CNRS Strasbourg, France
Prof Kostas Kostarelos, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, and Catalan Institute of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (ICN2), Barcelona, Spain
Prof Maurizio Prato, CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastián, Spain

Many researchers have responded to our special issue and have asked for more time given the number of conflicting deadlines they have. To give everyone more time to finalise and submit the great work they have to offer, we are delighted to extend the deadline for this collection until 30 September 2023.

Over the past decade, the Graphene Flagship Division II (Health, Medicine, Sensors) has contributed immensely to developments in graphene-based technologies for biomedical applications, safe and sustainable graphene and related materials, and high-performance sensors with a variety of applications, from detecting disease biomarkers, to piezoresistive devices for microphones and speakers. This collection coincides with the celebration of the achievements and completion of this programme of work.

The Guest Editors for this collection would be delighted if you will join them in hailing this important milestone by contributing your latest and best original research to the collection. We welcome research from participants in the Graphene Flagship programme, as well as from those investigators working in these important research areas at institutions outside of the Flagship.

The topics of this special themed collection on Graphene and 2D materials (G2D) in healthcare, include but are not limited to:

• Chemical modifications and strategies to achieve safe and sustainable G2D materials
• Safety-by-design exemplars of G2D materials
• G2D materials Risk and Life Cycle analysis
• Environmental and human health impact from intended and unintentional exposure to G2D materials
• G2D materials & technologies to manage and treat neurodegenerative disease
• Therapeutic platforms and modalities based on G2D materials
• Diagnostics and Imaging approaches utilising G2D material properties
• Approaches to enhance tissue regeneration using G2D materials
• G2D sensing platforms, devices, approaches with biomedical impact
• Detection of disease (cancer, infectious disease, etc) biomarker molecules using G2D-based sensors
• Advances in sensing technologies using G2D materials with future impact in biomedicine

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

• Communications
• Full papers

New submission deadline: 30 September 2023

We welcome submissions from now until the deadline, with articles being published in the next available issue on acceptance and collated into an online collection. This allows greater flexibility for you to publish your research when it is ready, while ensuring your article is published quickly. The collection will be promoted in the second half of 2023 and beyond, ensuring maximum visibility of your article within the materials chemistry community.

Submissions to the collection should fit within the scope of either Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale or Nanoscale Advances and we encourage authors to select which journal they find most suitable for their work. Please visit the journal websites for more information about the scope, standards, article types and author guidelines.

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, please submit your article directly through the Nanoscale Horizons online submission service, Nanoscale online submission service or the Nanoscale Advances online submission service. Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Graphene and 2D materials in healthcare 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 as such inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed collection is not guaranteed. All submissions will be subject to initial assessment and sent for peer review, if appropriate. We cannot guarantee peer review or acceptance of your submission in the journal.

If you have any questions about any of the journals or the collection, please email nanoscale-rsc@rsc.org.

We look forward to receiving your submissions and featuring your work in this special collection!

With best wishes,

Prof Laura Ballerini (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, Italy)
Dr Alberto Bianco (CNRS Strasbourg, France)
Prof Kostas Kostarelos (University of Manchester, United Kingdom, and Catalan Institute of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (ICN2), Barcelona, Spain)
Prof Maurizio Prato (CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastián, Spain)

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)

Call For Papers: Bionanocomposites

Guest edited by Sabu Thomas, Aji Mathew, and Maya John

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for our latest online themed collection in Nanoscale Advances on Nanobiocomposites that is being guest edited by Professor Sabu Thomas (Mahatma Gandhi University, India), Professor Aji Mathew (Stockholm University, Sweden),  and Dr Maya John (CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa).

In this collection we welcome articles on the following topics:

• Sources, extraction, and manufacturing of bio-based nanocomposites
• Processing of bio-based nanocomposites
• Engineered bio-based nanostructures
• Characterisation of bionanocomposites
• Morphology of bionanocomposites
• End-use applications
• Scale-up
• LCA and recycling

Open for submissions until 15 August, 2023

If you would like to contribute to this themed collection, you can submit your article directly through the Nanoscale Advances online submission service and inform the Editorial Office by email.  Please mention that this submission is a contribution to the Nanobiocomposites 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. Accepted manuscripts will be added to the online collection as soon as they are online, and they will be published in a regular issue of Nanoscale Advances. Please note that article processing charges apply to all articles submitted to Nanoscale Advances if, following peer-review, they are accepted for publication. Details of the APC and discounted rates can be found here.

If you have any questions about the journal or the collection, you can contact us by emailing the journal inbox.

With best wishes,

Professor Sabu Thomas, Mahatma Gandhi University, India

Professor Aji Mathew, Stockholm University, Sweden

Dr Maya John, CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa

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

We are delighted to introduce a new themed collection in Nanoscale Advances and welcome you to submit your latest quality research!

Guest Editor: Hao Jing (George Mason University, USA)

Submit before 1 September 2023

Topics of interest in this collection include (but not limited to):

• Synthesis and characterization of plasmonic nanomaterials (noble metals and semiconductors) with tuneable optical and/or photocatalytic properties, including light-adaptive plasmonic hydrogels and plasmonic metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs).
• Single molecule/particle spectroscopy development with plasmonic hybrid nanostructures.
• Electrocatalysis with multicomponent plasmonic nanostructures at either ensemble or single-particle level.
• Interactions of novel plasmonic nanoparticles with their molecular environment, such as biological fluids and proteins.
• Hierarchical nanostructures or assemblies of plasmonic nanoparticles with collective properties in optics, spectroscopies, catalysis, actuation, and biological sensing.
• Chiral plasmonic nanostructures with controlled shapes and morphologies.
• Photothermal cancer therapy and biomedical imaging with plasmonic nano-architectures, such as super-resolution fluorescence, ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging related to human health.
• Theoretical understanding of nanoplasmonics with emerging numerical simulation methods.

You are welcome to submit an original research article within the scope.

If you are interested in contributing to this collection please get in touch with the Editorial Office by email.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Royal Society of Chemistry’s online submission service and the Editorial Office informed by email. 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. All manuscripts will be subject to the journal’s usual peer review process. Accepted manuscripts will be added to the online collection as soon as they are online, and they will be published in a regular issue of Nanoscale Advances.

Please note that article processing charges apply to all articles submitted to Nanoscale Advances if, following peer-review, they are accepted for publication. Details of the APC and discounted rates can be found here.