Environmental Science: Advances is pleased to present a new themed collection on the topic of Environmental Photocatalysis in the context of Carbon Neutralisation.

Despite decades of development, photocatalytic technology still has many key scientific problems to solve, including the bottleneck of large-scale application in environmental pollution control, the utilisation efficiency of sunlight, the selectivity of products in photosynthesis and so on.

Guest Edited by Liwu Zhang, Zhenfeng Bian, Hiromi Yamashita, and Jonathan Bloh, the work in this collection seeks to address some of these challenges.

Read the full collection online.

It includes:

Critical Review

Advancements in visible light-driven micro/nanomotors for photodegradation of environmental pollutants

Vanessa R. Ferreira and Manuel Azenha, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2024, 3, 1474-1499

Paper

Optimizing the electronic configuration of h-BN for boosting the photocatalytic transformation of acid gases under visible light

Can Yang, et al, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2024, 3, 97-108

Paper

Surface etching to tune the behaviours of photogenerated charges on a decahedron BiVO₄ crystal for efficient photocatalysis

Feng Pan, Rengui Li, et al, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023, 2, 1189-1195

Paper

Study of the different morphologies of Zn_0.5Cd_0.5S for photocatalytic H₂ production

Xiuzhen Zheng, Shifu Chen, et al, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023, 2, 721-730

Paper

Crystal phase engineering SiC nanosheets for enhancing photocatalytic CO₂ reduction

Zizhong Zhang, et al, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023, 2, 132-139

Paper

Sequencing batch photocatalytic H₂O₂ production over a magnetic resorcinol–formaldehyde polymer for on-site water purification by UV light irradiation

Mingce Long, et al, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023, 2, 98-106

We hope you find these articles interesting. Please contact the editorial office if you have any questions about this themed collection or Environmental Science: Advances.

We invite you to contribute to our new collection aiming to highlight the environmental impact of mining and recycling of minerals and metals from batteries.

Research into the extraction and recycling of materials and minerals for batteries is crucial for protecting our environment and to promote sustainable resource use. Understanding the environmental impacts and challenges associated with these activities, such as health implications for local populations exposed to air and water pollution, biodiversity loss from mining and recycling activities, and the distinct environmental effects of deep-sea versus land-based mining, can support with the development of sustainable and more efficient practices.

For more information on the collection, which closes for submissions on 30 May 2025, see our open call for papers.

When you publish with Environmental Science: Advances you can:

• Put your trust in both our rigorous peer review process and fast times to publication.
• Expect your work to be promoted through our journal social media (@EnvSciRSC and LinkedIn)
• Be confident of a global audience for your work. This means that dissemination of this work will likely go beyond chemists and reach a broader audience.

Environmental Science: Advances is a gold open access journal and covers advances in all areas related to environmental sustainability. Authors are welcome to submit original research as a Communication, Full Paper or Review article. Please contact the editorial office to register your interest or for more information. Alternatively, you can submit a manuscript below.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Royal Society of Chemistry’s online submission service and the Editorial Office informed by email. Please state the code “VABatMat25” in the “Comments to the Editor” submission question when you submit your manuscript, to indicate that this is a submission for the themed collection. The Editorial Office reserves 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 will be published in a regular issue of Environmental Science: Advances.

Environmental Science: Advances is pleased to announce a new themed collection on Soil Protection and Regeneration that is now open for submissions.

Guest Edited by co-Editors-in-Chief Kevin Jones and Célia Manaia, this collection aims to update recent developments in soil science, soil-dependent ecosystem services, and the impacts and potential barriers of soil in the face of pollution and climate change. The collection seeks contributions from a variety of fields, including but not limited to agro-food/agro-forestry, botany, chemistry, geology, hydrology, and more.

Topic include, but are not limited to:

• Soil quality standards and objectives
• Soil health- definition and enhancement
• Practical management of soils
• Remediation and recovery of damaged and polluted soils
• The role of soil microbial ecology
• Managing soil carbon and nutrients for sustainable soil systems
• Soil-dependent ecosystem services
• Integration of different trophic levels in soil and potential threats
• One soil, multiple habitats and functions
• Managing and protecting soil interfaces
• Anthropogenic soils

We can consider review articles as well as original research. Contributions from policy and industrial viewpoints are also welcome.

The submission deadline for this collection is 1st March 2025.

If you have suitable work you would like to be considered for this collection, you can submit an article through our submissions portal. If you have any queries, please contact the editorial office at esadvances-rsc@rsc.org, where a member of our team will be happy to help.

Towards the end of 2023, Clarivate announced their annual list of Highly Cited Researchers.

Each of the recipients has authored multiple highly cited papers which rank in the top 1% of citations for their field.

Of those, co-Editor-in-Chief Célia Manaia has received the award for Highly Cited Research in the field of Environment and Ecology in 2021, 2022, and now, 2023.

To celebrate this recognition, she has shared the following quote:

“It’s good to know that our work is appreciated and useful to our colleagues. Research on antimicrobial resistance and its impact on the environment has grown and become more visible over the past decades, thanks to excellent contributions from researchers around the world.  This is one of those occasions when you realise that doing research means working in a huge, global community.

My advice to young researchers is never to work for rankings or metrics, but always to do your best, with honesty, creativity and integrity, and to fall in love with what you do every day, from the simplest to the most sophisticated.“

Célia Manaia, co-Editor-in-Chief, Environmental Science: Advances

We are excited to announce a themed collection published in Environmental Science: Advances arising from the 5th Annual RE:BORDER conference taking place on October 24.

This issue will bring together a comprehensive collection of articles covering fundamental and applied research related to water challenges in the border region and coastal areas. Primary topics of interest include water pollution, agricultural water use, water reuse, and the impacts of climate change on watersheds.

Truly interdisciplinary, our journal welcomes research from all fields related to the environmental sciences, global environmental change, and sustainability science. Studies that advance our understanding of the physical environment, environmental health, and environmental sustainability, as well as those at the environmental and social science interface, are particularly welcomed.

Submission Deadline: 30 April 2024

Article Processing Charges (APCs): APCs are waived on all submissions until mid-2024.

Contact: To express an interest in contributing, please contact Jon Ferrier in the RSC editorial office at ESAdvances-rsc@rsc.org.

Submitting an article: Please visit the journal submission platform at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/va. All submitted manuscripts must include an Environmental Significance Statement (120 words maximum) that sets the work in a broader environmental science context.

We hope that you will consider contributing your research to this collection.

We are delighted to announce that Ngai Yin Yip has joined the Environmental Science: Advances Editorial Board as an Associate Editor. He received his doctoral degree in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from Yale University and currently serves as the Lavon Duddleson Krumb Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University.

Dr. Yip’s current research is at the forefront of advancing physicochemical technologies and innovations to address critical separation challenges in water, energy, and the environment, including:

• High-salinity desalination
• Zero-liquid discharge
• Resource recovery from wastewaters
• Next-generation selective membranes
• Switchable solvents for water treatment
• Low-grade heat utilization

His outstanding contributions to these areas have earned him numerous recognitions, including the James J. Morgan Early Career Award (Honorable Mention) from Environmental Science & Technology. He has also been featured as an Emerging Investigator in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology and as a Young Talent in Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering.

Emerging investigator series: thermodynamic and energy analysis of nitrogen and phosphorous recovery from wastewaters
Stephanie N. McCartney, Nobuyo S. Watanabe and Ngai Yin Yip*
Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2021,7, 2075-2088
DOI: 10.1039/D1EW00554E

Environmental Science: Advances is an international and collaborative journal

Collaborations are becoming increasingly important for the environmental sciences. Environmental science doesn’t recognize boundaries, requiring interactions from researchers from different disciplines and different backgrounds to address research challenges. As an international journal, Environmental Science: Advances believes that international research enables us to publish and disseminate research findings to different populations, cultures, and regions. Collaborative research is the cornerstone for developing strong relationships and solving global challenges in the environmental sciences.

We are delighted to be sharing with you a selection of international and collaborative work published in the journal:

A baseline survey of potentially toxic elements in the soil of north-west Syria following a decade of conflict

Miassar Alhasan, Abdulkarim Lakmes, Mohammad Gazy Alobaidy, Safwan AlHaeek, Muhammed Assaf, Lorna Dawson, Duncan Pirrie, Ziad Abdeldayem and Jonathan Bridge

“Advanced materials” and the challenges on the horizon for testing their (eco)toxicity and assessing their hazard

Fazel Abdolahpur Monikh, Willie Peijnenburg, Agnes G. Oomen, Eugenia Valsami-Jones, Vicki Stone, Raine Kortet, Jarkko Akkanen, Peng Zhang, Jukka Kekäläinen, Alena Sevcu and Jussi V.K. Kukkonen

Application of neural network in metal adsorption using biomaterials (BMs): a review

Amrita Nighojkar, Karl Zimmermann, Mohamed Ateia, Benoit Barbeau, Madjid Mohseni, Satheesh Krishnamurthy, Fuhar Dixit and Balasubramanian Kandasubramanian

Factors affecting real-world applications of HEPA purifiers in improving indoor air quality

Scott D. Lowther, Wei Deng, Zheng Fang, Douglas Booker, J. Duncan Whyatt, Oliver Wild, Xinming Wang and Kevin C. Jones

There are many benefits to publishing with Environmental Science: Advances including:

• Free Gold Open Access publication – all article processing charges are waived until mid-2024
• Rapid times to publication – our average time to decision for peer-reviewed manuscripts is just 41 days†
• Flexible article types with no word count restrictions or colour charges
• Broad readership: our global audience provides maximum exposure for your work
• Publicity on Twitter and WeChat for featured articles

We would be delighted to hear from you if you are interested in submitting to the journal or if you would like any further information. If you are interested in publishing your next paper with us, please reply by return email so that we can send you an invited submission link.

World Water Day is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis. Water affects us all and everyone needs to take action. Environmental Science: Advances is committed to publishing research from any discipline related to the environmental sciences, including clean water and sanitation.

This World Water Day, read a collection of research on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Clean water and sanitation, published in Environmental Science: Advances.

Fluoride contamination, consequences and removal techniques in water: a review

Shaz Ahmad, Reena Singh, Tanvir Arfin and Krishna Neeti
Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2022,1, 620-661, DOI: 10.1039/D1VA00039J

Preparation of two kinds of membranes with reverse wettability from waste masks for continuous oil/water separation

Lianchao Ning, Yi Liu, Yang Luo, Yaxin Han, Longfei Zhang and Ming Zhang

Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023,2, 473-483, DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00295G

Monitoring of phosphorus discharge in a sewage treatment plant with a phosphate automated analyzer

Adrian Cabo, Susana Gouveia, Claudio Cameselle and Keun-Heon Lee

Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2022,1, 483-490, DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00062H

Review of analytical techniques for arsenic detection and determination in drinking water

Abhijnan Bhat, Tony O Hara, Furong Tian and Baljit Singh

Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023,2, 171-195, DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00218C

We hope you enjoy reading this collection of articles and if you want to contribute your work to our growing collection on SDG6: Clean water & sanitation, get in contact with our editorial office.

The articles published in Environmental Science: Advances cover a range of important topics related to environmental science which provide a valuable insight into the most pressing environmental challenges. Throughout February, a number of our articles received significant engagement from the community. Here, we have compiled some of the most popular articles from the past month:

Policy options to account for multiple chemical pollutants threatening biodiversity

L. K. Mueller, M. Ågerstrand, T. Backhaus, M. Diamond, W. R. Erdelen, D. Evers, K. J. Groh, M. Scheringer, G. Sigmund, Z. Wang and A. Schäffer, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023, 2, 151–161. DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00257D.

What do we know about the production and release of persistent organic pollutants in the global environment?

L. Li, C. Chen, D. Li, K. Breivik, G. Abbasi and Y.-F. Li, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023, 2, 55–68. DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00145D.

The emergence of microplastics: charting the path from research to regulations

S. Coffin, Environ Sci.: Adv., 2023, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00275B.

Factors affecting real-world applications of HEPA purifiers in improving indoor air quality

S. D. Lowther, W. Deng, Z. Fang, D. Booker, J. D. Whyatt, O. Wild, X. Wang and K. C. Jones, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023, 2, 235–246. DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00206J.

Hemocompatibility of biogenic phosphorus nano-agromaterials at environmentally relevant and supra-environmental concentrations for occupational exposure

A. Priyam, L. O. Afonso, A. G. Schultz, A. K. Dinda and P. P. Singh, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2023, 2, 313–324. DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00237J.

Seasonal and spatial patterns differ between intracellular and extracellular antibiotic resistance genes in urban stormwater runoff

K. O’Malley, P. J. McNamara and W. M. McDonald, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2022, 1, 380–390. DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00065B.

For the latest editorial board news, scope details and announcements, sign up for the Environmental Science: Advances news and issue alerts.

Our recent sponsorship of the ICRER conference

The Environmental Science journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry were delighted to sponsor the ICRER conference at Nankai University, Tianjin this month. This conference focused on environmental engineering, monitoring and management. Though held virtually, it attracted 75 speakers globally and almost 200 attendees.

We were extremely pleased to support 10 Student Poster winners, as listed below.

Many congratulations to the winners!

If you attended the conference and still have questions about our journals that you would like answered, please feel free to reach out to the editorial office or find a home for your research in our environmental portfolio.