Regular readers of the Materials Today journal will no doubt be familiar with the current aims, scope and remit of the journal; that is, to publish concise reviews on some of the most exciting topics in modern materials science, and make those articles free for all to read. And so, it's my pleasure to announce a new initiative involving Elsevier's engineering journals, editors, authors and referees that will make even more high impact reviews available to all: Engineering Advances.
Here on MaterialsToday.com, Engineering Advances will serve as a platform for collecting together specially commissioned reviews from experts in their respective fields. Sustainable development will form the theme of the first selection of papers, but in time the collection will cover a broader range of topics including renewable energy, thermal engineering, structural and geotechnical engineering, robotics, manufacturing, chemical engineering, water engineering, fuel cells and construction materials. These papers will be made Open Access through funding from Elsevier, to help maximize visibility of the reviews across industry and academia, and help transfer knowledge between communities. In 2015, the papers will provide a base for both practitioners and researchers to explore how materials science and engineering can offer solutions to the challenge of sustainable development.
More announcements and further developments on Engineering Advances will soon (if not already) be available on MaterialsToday.com, so please visit the website and feel free to send us feedback, questions, comments or suggestions on the program.
In the meantime, moving on to other advances: as always, the issue begins and closes with our cover feature: in this edition, Sawanta S. Mali and colleagues present a field emission scanning electron micrograph of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskites deposited by a simple and cost-effective spin coating technique, and discuss the applications for solar energy in Once again, organometallic tri-halide perovskites. In our Comment, Ana Proykova and colleagues considering emerging and newly identified health risks associated with nanosilver, and the report commissioned by the European Commission in Nanosilver: Safety, health and environmental effects and role in antimicrobial resistance.
On to reviews, and Mario Tagliazucchi and Igal Szleifer discuss the current understanding of the mechanisms of transport of ions and larger cargoes through nanopores and nanochannels by examining recent experimental and theoretical work in Transport mechanisms in nanopores and nanochannels: can we mimic nature?. Moving on to electronic applications, Chuan Fei Guo and Zhifeng Ren review flexible transparent conductors based on percolating networks of metal, examining the fabrication, the means to improve the electrical conductivity, and evaluation criteria in Flexible transparent conductors based on metal nanowire networks. Next, Zhiqun Lin and colleagues turn to Recent advances in dye-sensitized solar cells and highlights recent developments in DSSCs and highlight the materials science of their key components, including the photoanode, sensitizer, electrolyte and counter electrode. In our final review, Marco Righettoni, Anton Amann and Sotiris E. Pratsinis look at Breath analysis by nanostructured metal oxides as chemo-resistive gas sensors and the potential for disease monitoring and clinical diagnostics.
And so, as always, we hope you enjoy this issue of Materials Today.