Connecting the materials community

If you’re reading this issue's editorial via the Materials Today website you may have already noticed some changes to the platform, with the addition of some brand new topic categories. If not, then feel free to head to the website now… These changes are part of the ongoing evolution of Materials Today; growing beyond a single publication to become the home of materials science at Elsevier, dedicated to the creation and sharing of materials science knowledge and experience.

The latest additions include welcoming industry focused titles into the family, starting with Reinforced Plastics and Metal Powder Report. You’ll still find as much coverage on scientific developments, but this update means you’ll now be able to access news about the materials industry from MaterialsToday.com, as well as access more articles, whitepapers, webinars, newsletters, and connect with over 100,000 of your peers through your Materials Today member account.

Once you’ve had a chance to explore the expanded platform, do get in touch to let us know what you think, as well as which areas of materials science and industry you’d like us to cover (more) in the future.

But moving from the wider Materials Today family, to the Materials Today journal; this issue begin as and ends with our regular Uncovered feature, this time showing Buckling waves in aluminum on a polyimide sea, as Riccardo Lucchini looks at reliable design strategies for stretchable electronics. Onto Comments, and Miriam Unterlass discusses Creating Geomimetic Polymers: from hydrothermal veins to highly crystalline polymers. In this edition's review articles we begin with Li-ion battery materials: Present & future, as Gleb Yushin et al. cover key technological developments and scientific challenges for a broad range of Li-ion battery electrode materials. Sticking with the theme of energy, Guozhen Shen and colleagues discuss Flexible fiber energy storage and integrated devices: Recent progress and perspectives, with particular emphasis on their electrode fabrication, structure design, and flexibility. Next, Thierry Darmanin and Frédéric Guittard report on Superhydrophobic and superoleophobic properties in nature, and their potential for application. Finally, Jong-Beom Baek and co-workers highlight Graphene and molybdenum disulfide hybrids and their role in electrochemical energy storage, sensing, hydrogen generation by photochemical water splitting and electronic device applications.

As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of Materials Today.