Sustainable Material Development Through Waste Utilization: From Molecular Insights to Functional Applications
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 65
Special Issue Editor
Interests: sustainability; food waste; food safety; climate change; nanotechnology; polymers; microplastics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The growing global emphasis on sustainability has encouraged the development of innovative approaches to transform waste materials into sustainable, high-performance solutions. This Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) invites original research, reviews, and short communications exploring the chemical, structural, and functional aspects involved in converting agricultural and industrial waste into valuable materials.
This Special Issue will highlight studies that deepen our understanding of the underlying chemical processes, structural transformations, and property relationships that enable designing and developing sustainable materials from waste sources. We encourage submissions that investigate the chemical modification, functionalization, degradation pathways, and structure–property correlations of waste-derived materials, as well as studies employing advanced analytical, spectroscopic, or computational tools to characterize these materials at the molecular or nanoscale.
Topics of interest:
- Development of biodegradable plastics and polymers from renewable or waste resources;
- Chemical and structural modification of waste-derived composites for enhanced performance;
- Valorization of biomass waste into functional materials using green chemistry approaches;
- Studies of degradation, recyclability, or stability of waste-based materials;
- Insights into material properties informed by spectroscopic, chromatographic, or microscopic analyses;
- Strategies integrating sustainable materials into circular economy frameworks, supported by chemical and structural evaluations.
This Special Issue will foster interdisciplinary dialogue that bridges chemical and materials science approaches to waste utilization, offering insights into sustainable material development with applications spanning packaging, textiles, and more.
Dr. Rosie Yagmur Yegin
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- sustainable materials
- waste-derived materials
- biodegradable polymers
- green chemistry
- functionalization
- structure–property relationships
- chemical modification
- recycling
- valorization
- circular economy
- composites
- analytical techniques
- industrial waste
- agricultural waste
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
