Materials Horizons Blog

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) have emerged as a leading platform for soft actuators, haptic interfaces, and mechanically responsive materials, owing to their ability to undergo large, reversible shape transformations. Conventional two-stage LCE programming strategies, however, typically rely on a base-catalyzed first crosslinking step, which limits processing time, scalability, and compatibili…

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have become a recurring phenomenon in modern materials science. Every few years they re-enter the spotlight: first as the revolution for hydrogen storage, then as the future of CO₂ capture, then as the next big thing in catalysis, sensing, or drug delivery. And now once again, MOFs are appearing in discussions about the recent Nobel Prize. A recent paper by Abánade…

Bioinspired Materials Chemistry Frontiers Open call for papers We are pleased to announce an open call for papers to a themed collection across Materials Horizons and Materials Chemistry Frontiers. This collection is being Guest Edited by Professor Shu-Hong Yu (University of Science and Technology of China), Professor Shutao Wang (Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS), Professor Ming…

Metamaterials Submissions deadline 10 April 2026 We are pleased to open submissions to a themed collection on metamaterials to be published in Materials Horizons. This collection is being guest edited by: Prof. Grace X. Gu (University of California, Berkeley, USA) Dr. Mohammad J. Mirzaali (TU Delft, The Netherlands) Prof. Amir Zadpoor (TU Delft, The Netherlands) Dr Wei Zhai (National University o…

Materials Horizons is delighted to announce our 2024 Outstanding Paper Award winners! 🎉 In order to recognize some of the outstanding work published in the journal, as well as the authors behind those articles, we annually award a Materials Horizons Outstanding Paper Award. The prizes recognise the contributions of all authors and celebrate these exceptional publications. Each year, we look back …

Taking a historical snapshot of chiral plasmonics, after discovery in the 19th century and becoming more important in the 20th century for pharmacological and biological applications, in the early 2000s, twisted plasmonic nanostructures revealed strong chiroptical responses. However, their fabrication remained complex and limited. The 2010s introduced enabling tools such as DNA origami, colloidal…

Materials Horizons Emerging Investigators Series Discover our featured authors in 2024 and 2025 Since the launch of Materials Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time are looking for new wa…

Science Outreach and Career Support: Strategies & Insights Join us for this special Forum panel discussion, held at ICMAT 2025, which will provide an overview of how to enhance the visibility of your research and support your career advancement in a dynamic and diverse scientific community. The panel discussion features Editorial Board members and authors from Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Hor…

To combat climate change, we must reduce carbon footprints either through waste reduction or renewable energy. Plastic waste is a significant challenge, with millions of tons ending up in landfills and oceans each year. Thus, it is of immense importance to reduce or recycle plastic waste, or even convert it to useful materials. In a recent study, Z. Qiang et al. show how upcycled plastics, like p…

New Advisory Board member Materials Horizons welcomes John A Rogers Materials Horizons is pleased to welcome Professor John A Rogers from Northwestern University, USA to the Advisory Board. Professor John A. Rogers obtained BA and BS degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1989. From MIT, he received SM degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and a PhD deg…

Nanocatalysis Open call for papers We are pleased to announce an open call for papers to a themed collection across Nanoscale Horizons and Materials Horizons, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.  This collection is being Guest Edited by Marcella Lusardi (Princeton University, USA), Tianyi Ma (RMIT University, Australia), Wee-Jun Ong (Xiamen University Malaysia), Vivek […]

In November 2024, Nanoscale Horizons and Materials Horizons held a joint symposium at NCNST in Beijing, China on the topic of polymers at the human interface. The symposium covered a wide range of topics from sensors and theranostics to bioelectronics and drug delivery, and we were joined by many of our Nanoscale Horizons and Materials Horizons editors and community […]

Materials Horizons and Journal of Materials Chemistry C were pleased to sponsor oral presentation awards at the recent MATSUS Fall 2024 symposium on understanding mixed ionic-electronic conductors #OMIEC. Congratulations to Bryan Paulsen, University of Notre Dame, USA  and Maximilian Horn, University of Bern, Switzerland for being awarded a prize for their presentations. Find out more about […]

3D printing has revolutionized the production of polymer-based materials, with the development of numerous printing techniques that continuously enhance speed, resolution, and accessibility. Among the most significant advancements is light-based 3D printing, which utilizes photopolymerization reactions to solidify inks, offering precise spatiotemporal control over the printing process. However, l…

Perovskite oxynitrides are intriguing materials with significant relevance in photoelectrochemistry and catalysis. Their crystallinity is often simplified using high-symmetry unit cells as a convenient approximation. However, this approach fails to capture the complex local atomic displacements of anions and neighboring cations caused by the differing ionic radii of oxygen and nitrogen anions. A …

Soft wearable sensors Open call for papers We are pleased to announce an open call for papers to a themed collection across Nanoscale Horizons and Materials Horizons, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.  This collection is being guest edited by Professors John Rogers (Northwestern University, USA), Wenlong Cheng (University of Sydney, Australia), Alina Rwei […]

We were delighted to support poster prize awards along with RSC Applied Polymers and Polymer Chemistry at the recent GDCh Makro conference in Dresden, Germany which was held from 16 – 18 September 2024. Congratulations to our winners, Annalena Groß and Ronja Bodesheimer. Find out more about them below.   Annalena Groß studied chemistry at […]

As you may know, Materials Horizons is celebrating their 10th anniversary! To join in the celebrations, we have asked authors to find creative ways to add a ’10’ to the cover artwork and are excited to show you the results in our cover showcase. Check out the covers in our showcase below and keep an […]

Materials Horizons, Digital Discovery and MSDE were delighted to sponsor three oral prizes at the 2nd Annual Computational Energy Materials Design Infrastructure (CEMDI) symposium held in Montreal, Canada from 27 – 29 May. Congratulations to Parastoo Agharezaei, Yasser Salah Eddine Bouchareb and Mehdi Shamekhi!   Find out more about our winners below:   Parastoo Agharezaei [&#8230…

Materials Horizons Emerging Investigator series Discover our 2024 Emerging Investigators Since the launch of Materials Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time […]