RSC Sustainability Blog

RSC Sustainability is very excited to announce the launch of our latest themed collection, Industrial Perspectives, which is now open for submissions.

Chemical industries have a major role to play in the drive towards a sustainable future. The products manufactured by chemical industries touch all aspects of society, and many of the changes required to achieve sustainability will have a profound impact on how chemical companies operate. Such changes will include regulatory developments from regional and central governments, and new scientific innovations from the laboratories of the companies themselves.

This collection will serve as a platform to showcase the sustainability agenda of different companies operating in all sectors of chemical industry, from pharmaceuticals to petrochemicals, from consumer products to commodity chemicals, and provide these companies with an opportunity to elaborate on their Green and Sustainable Chemistry strategies and share the sustainability vision for their company and for the future of their industry.

The collection is guest Edited by Gary Walker (Lubrizol, UK), Paul Price (Unilever, UK) and Lei Wang (Westlake University, China), all of whom have extensive experience working in chemical industries.

This themed collection will accept Perspective articles. Perspective articles can be written through the lens of an individual or company on a topic of interest to the readership of the journal. Primary research papers are not within the scope of this collection, but we welcome primary research to the journal outside of this themed collection.

The submission deadline for this collection is Friday 15th August 2025.

If you have an Industrial Perspective you would like to share as part of this collection, please send a proposal to us at rscsus-rsc@rsc.org.

RSC Sustainability is very pleased to announce that our themed collection on Electrocatalysis for Energy Conversion Reactions is now open for submissions.

Defossilising and decarbonising the energy industry will be an important step in securing a sustainable future. Converting chemical energy to more usable forms is one approach that offers a sustainable alternative.

Electrocatalysis offers a method of overcoming the activation barriers of desired reactions and can make them economically viable at scales to make a difference to global climate change targets. In this way, it will be possible to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals 7 (affordable and clean energy) and 13 (climate action).

Guest Edited by Zhenyu Sun (Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China), Justus Masa (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Germany), and Kate Waldie (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA), RSC Sustainability’s themed collection on Electrocatalysis for Energy Conversion Reactions aims to be a venue for work seeking to further these goals.

Topics for this collection include, but are not limited to:

• Hydrogen and oxygen reactions (i.e., hydrogen evolution reaction, hydrogen oxidation reaction, oxygen reduction reaction, oxygen evolution reaction)
• CO₂ reduction
• Nitrogen-based compound synthesis
• Biomass conversion
• Energy storage applications
• Sustainable design of electrocatalysts for energy conversion reactions

The collection welcomes contributions from industry and policy perspectives, as well as academic perspectives and can publish both review articles and primary research.

If you have work that fits the scope of this collection, feel free to submit now through our submissions portal. The submission deadline for this collection is Friday 14^th February 2025.

If you have any questions regarding this collection or the journal, please contact the editorial office at rscsus-rsc@rsc.org, where our team will be happy to help.

RSC Sustainability is very pleased to announce that our new themed collection, Defossilising Chemical Industries, is now open for submissions.

Chemical industries touch almost every aspect of society. They produce everything from fuels and polymers to everyday consumer products such as cosmetics and household cleaning products. Currently, many of these vital products are made using feedstocks derived from fossil sources which, in addition to being finite, also release large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.

For chemical industries to be sustainable in the long term in accordance with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (particularly Goals 12 and 13, Responsible Consumption and Production and Climate Action, respectively), they must avoid using raw materials from fossil sources and find alternative feedstocks.

With the leadership of Guest Editors Agi Brandt-Talbot (Imperial College London, UK) and Alexander O’Malley (University of Bath, UK), RSC Sustainability’s themed collection on Defossilising Chemical Industries aims to be a venue for the latest research that could make this a reality.

Topics for this collection include, but are not limited to:

• Biomass as a feedstock
• CO₂ as a feedstock
• Plastic waste as a feedstock
• Methanol as a feedstock
• Use of renewable electricity in chemical industries
• Renewable oxidising and reducing agents
• Carbon capture

The collection welcomes contributions from industry and policy perspectives, as well as academic perspectives and can publish both review articles and primary research. Studies concerning Life Cycle Assessments and Techno-Economic Analyses are also welcome.

There are several approaches that have been proposed as stepping-stone or bridging technologies that, while not a permanent solution, do enable progress towards defossilisation. Indeed, the proponents of these argue that without such technologies it will be impossible to achieve defossilisation. On the other hand, opponents of these argue that they ultimately lead to the extension of the use of unsustainable technologies and hence are counterproductive. As we have stated in previous editorials, RSC Sustainability does not seek to be the gatekeeper for what is or is not sustainable chemistry, but rather provides a forum to facilitate such debates. However, we do expect contributors recognise these controversies within their manuscript and sustainability spotlight statement and to provide evidence to support the claims that that their technologies contribute to sustainability and the UN SDGs.

If you have work that fits the scope of this collection, feel free to submit now through our submissions portal. This collection has a submission deadline of Friday 31st January 2025.

If you have any questions regarding this collection or the journal, please contact the editorial office at rscsus-rsc@rsc.org, where our team will be happy to help.

Review articles are a great way to expand your knowledge of different areas of research, but Tutorial Reviews are specifically designed to act as a first introduction to a specific research topic.

Whether it is bringing you up to speed on the challenges of solving a particular issue, or on the advantages and disadvantages of a certain experimental technique, they should be your first port of call when you want to read up on a field you are not familiar with.

Since launching in 2022, RSC Sustainability has published several Tutorial Reviews that are sure to be of value to anyone seeking to learn more about the role the chemical sciences can play in addressing sustainability challenges. If you haven’t checked them out yet, we’d like to highlight some of them here

Replacing all petroleum-based chemical products with natural biomass-based chemical products: a tutorial review

Ryohei Mori, RSC Sustain., 2023, 1, 179-212

In this review, Ryohei Mori discusses the ambitious goal of eliminating all products derived from petroleum feedstocks. By taking a comprehensive view of biomass derived plastics, Mori demonstrates the variety of everyday consumer products that could be made from sustainable and biodegradable materials.

A guide to lignin valorization in biorefineries: traditional, recent, and forthcoming approaches to convert raw lignocellulose into valuable materials and chemicals

Filippo Brienza, David Cannella, Diego Montesdeoca, Iwona Cybulska and Damien P. Debecker, RSC Sustain., 2024, 2, 37-90

Lignin and cellulose are the most common sources of renewable biomass in the world. As such, there is a lot of interest in whether these can be used as sources of fine and bulk chemicals that have traditionally been produced from petroleum. This Tutorial Review introduces the properties of these biomass sources and the existing methods of treating and refining them into useful products.

From rocks to bioactive compounds: a journey through the global P(v) organophosphorus industry and its sustainability

Sosthène P.-M. Ung and Chao-Jun Li, RSC Sustain., 2023, 1, 11-37

This review introduces the field of organophosphorus chemistry and discusses the challenges associated with the methods currently used to obtain phosphorus. The review rounds off by presenting some more sustainable alternatives.

A tutorial review for research laboratories to support the vital path toward inherently sustainable and green synthetic chemistry

Sarah M. Kernaghan, Tracey Coady, Michael Kinsella and Claire M. Lennon, RSC Sustain., 2024, 2, 578-607

This review introduces concepts and metrics that synthetic chemists can use to make their own practices cleaner and more sustainable. For example, have you ever done a life cycle assessment of your reactions where you consider the source of all your reagents and the environmental impact of the waste products you dispose of?

Sustainability applications of rare earths from metallurgy, magnetism, catalysis, luminescence to future electrochemical pseudocapacitance energy storage

Shan-Shan Chai, Wei-Bin Zhang, Jing-Lei Yang, Lun Zhang, Myat Myintzu Theint, Xian-Li Zhang, Shao-Bo Guo, Xia Zhou and Xue-Jing Ma, RSC Sustain., 2023, 1, 38-71

This review introduces Rare Earth elements and their applications in a variety of fields, including their potential uses as sustainable energy storage materials that could be used as alternatives to Li-ion batteries.

We hope you find these Tutorial Reviews interesting. You can explore all the review content published by RSC Sustainability, including other Tutorial Reviews as well as our other review type articles, in our ongoing reviews web collection.

If you would like to contribute a review article to RSC Sustainability, please send a review proposal to our Editorial Office.

RSC Sustainability is pleased to announce 3 brand new Themed Collections that are open for submissions from 30th October 2023:

1. Energy Materials Redesign, Reuse and Repurpose
2. CO2 Conversion
3. Circular Economy

These collections cover key areas within sustainable chemistry that will be critical to achieving a sustainable future. Each collection is Guest Edited by a member of RSC Sustainability‘s Editorial Board and other leaders in the field. Work that falls within the scope of any of these collections and meets the general requirements for publication in RSC Sustainability is welcomed for consideration.

Energy Materials Redesign, Reuse and Repurpose

Guest Editors: Cristina Pozo-Gonzalo, Bethan Charles, Xiaolei Wang, Erlantz Lizundia

Submission deadline: 31st July 2024

Themed Collection shortcode: SUEnMat24

This collection welcomes submissions on the following topics:

Extraction and separation of critical metals from end-of-life products using selective and sustainable methods (e.g. leaching, electroleaching, membranes, electrowinning)

Recycling of lithium-ion batteries, including developing more efficient methods, and improvements through a sustainability lens (e.g. less solvent usage, milder conditions, economically improved processes)

Recovery of precious, critical and in-demand metals from waste electronics, and industrial waste streams

Solar panel recycling.

Life cycle assessment and sustainability analysis of energy materials recycling.

Waste management and policy, including developing initiatives to promote energy materials recycling.

Advances in green hydrometallurgy, bioleaching and direct recycling.

Selective extraction from spent batteries.

Repurpose: Upcycling spent batteries for catalytic, waste-water and other emerging applications.

CO2 Conversion

Guest Editors: Haichao Liu, Carlos Alemán, John Mondal, Xiao Jiang

Submission Deadline: 14th August 2024

Themed Collection shortcode: SUCO224 

The RSC Sustainability CO₂ Conversion themed collection seeks to publish work on the following topics:

• Catalytic conversion of CO₂, to value-added chemicals or fuels.
• Electrochemical conversion of CO₂
• Photochemical conversion of CO₂
• Biological conversion of CO₂ using algae or bacteria

We welcome submissions that report new or improved methodologies, or that optimise or improve the sustainability of an existing process. We also welcome submissions from industrial and policy, as well as academic, perspectives.

Circular Economy

Guest Editors: Vincent Nyamori, Alice Fan, Matthew Davies, Manie Vosloo

Submission Deadline: 28th August 2024

Themed Collection shortcode: SUCircEc24

This collection is seeking contributions on the following topics:

• Development of chemical processes that are environmentally friendly, including the use of renewable resources, safer solvents, and the reduction or elimination of hazardous chemicals.
• “Benign-by-design” approaches to materials that may be easily recycled or reused.
• The development of more durable or resilient materials from bio-based polymers.
• The evaluation of the environmental impact of materials and processes throughout their entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to disposal or recycling.

We welcome submission from academia, industry and government and regulatory sectors.

Any queries regarding these collections should be directed to the Editorial Office at rscsus-rsc@rsc.org.