Materials 2025 Best Paper Awards—Winners Announcement

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Materials 2025 Best Paper Award. All papers published in Materials from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023 were considered for this award. After a thorough evaluation by the journal’s Award Committee, led by Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Maryam Tabrizian, of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, 18 winning papers were selected, with further details presented below:

Reviews:

“Nanoparticles in Plants: Uptake, Transport and Physiological Activity in Leaf and Root”
by Xueran Wang, Hongguo Xie, Pei Wang and Heng Yin
Materials 2023, 16(8), 3097; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16083097

“A Review of Characterization and Modelling Approaches for Sheet Metal Forming of Lightweight Metallic Materials”
by Yong Hou, Dongjoon Myung, Jong Kyu Park, Junying Min, Hyung-Rim Lee, Ali Abd El-Aty and Myoung-Gyu Lee
Materials 2023, 16(2), 836; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16020836

“Unleashing the Power of Artificial Intelligence in Materials Design”
by Silvia Badini, Stefano Regondi and Raffaele Pugliese
Materials 2023, 16(17), 5927; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16175927

“Overview of the Current State of Flexible Solar Panels and Photovoltaic Materials”
by Rashid Dallaev, Tatiana Pisarenko, Nikola Papež and Vladimír Holcman
Materials 2023, 16(17), 5839; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16175839

“Microplastics Derived from Food Packaging Waste—Their Origin and Health Risks”
by Kornelia Kadac-Czapska, Eliza Knez, Magdalena Gierszewska, Ewa Olewnik-Kruszkowska and Małgorzata Grembecka
Materials 2023, 16(2), 674; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16020674

“The Role of Lithium-Ion Batteries in the Growing Trend of Electric Vehicles”
by Alessandro M. Ralls, Kaitlin Leong, Jennifer Clayton, Phillip Fuelling, Cody Mercer, Vincent Navarro and Pradeep L. Menezes
Materials 2023, 16(17), 6063; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16176063

“An Overview of Challenges for the Future of Hydrogen”
by Md Tanvir Ahad, Md Monjur Hossain Bhuiyan, Ahmed Nazmus Sakib, Alfredo Becerril Corral and Zahed Siddique
Materials 2023, 16(20), 6680; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16206680

“Thermal Conductivity of Aluminum Alloys—A Review”
by Ailing Zhang and Yanxiang Li
Materials 2023, 16(8), 2972; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16082972

“Recent Advances on 3D-Printed Zirconia-Based Dental Materials: A Review”
by Ana Catarina Branco, Rogério Colaço, Célio Gabriel Figueiredo-Pina and Ana Paula Serro
Materials 2023, 16(5), 1860; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16051860

Articles:

“The Effect of the Addition of Coal Fly Ash (CFA) on the Control of Water Movement within the Structure of the Concrete”
by Grzegorz Ludwik Golewski
Materials 2023, 16(15), 5218; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16155218

“Hydrothermal Synthesis of ZnO Superstructures with Controlled Morphology via Temperature and pH Optimization”
by Aleksander Ejsmont and Joanna Goscianska
Materials 2023, 16(4), 1641; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16041641

“Effect of Dipole Interactions on Blocking Temperature and Relaxation Dynamics of Superparamagnetic Iron-Oxide (Fe₃O₄) Nanoparticle Systems”
by Md Ehsan Sadat, Sergey L. Bud’ko, Rodney C. Ewing, Hong Xu, Giovanni M. Pauletti, David B. Mast and Donglu Shi
Materials 2023, 16(2), 496; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16020496

“Influence of Surface Chemistry of Fiber and Lignocellulosic Materials on Adhesion Properties with Polybutylene Succinate at Nanoscale”
by Carlos Marcuello, Brigitte Chabbert, Françoise Berzin, Nicolas B. Bercu, Michael Molinari and Véronique Aguié-Béghin
Materials 2023, 16(6), 2440; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16062440

“ZGSO Spinel Nanoparticles with Dual Emission of NIR Persistent Luminescence for Anti-Counterfeiting Applications”
by Guanyu Cai, Teresa Delgado, Cyrille Richard and Bruno Viana
Materials 2023, 16(3), 1132; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16031132

“Advanced Composite Materials Utilized in FDM/FFF 3D Printing Manufacturing Processes: The Case of Filled Filaments”
by Antreas Kantaros, Evangelos Soulis, Florian Ion Tiberiu Petrescu and Theodore Ganetsos
Materials 2023, 16(18), 6210; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16186210

“Broadband Metasurface Absorber Based on an Optimal Combination of Copper Tiles and Chip Resistors”
by Yongjune Kim and Jeong-Hae Lee
Materials 2023, 16(7), 2692; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16072692

“Fabrication of ZnWO₄/Carbon Black Nanocomposites Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode for Enhanced Electrochemical Determination of Ciprofloxacin in Environmental Water Samples”
by Kiruthika Mariappan, Saranvignesh Alagarsamy, Shen-Ming Chen and Subramanian Sakthinathan
Materials 2023, 16(2), 741; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16020741

“Modified Orange Peel Waste as a Sustainable Material for Adsorption of Contaminants”
by Uloaku Michael-Igolima, Samuel J. Abbey, Augustine O. Ifelebuegu and Eyo U. Eyo
Materials 2023, 16(3), 1092; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16031092

Each winner (corresponding author) will receive a respective prize of CHF 200–500, an electronic certificate, and the opportunity to publish one paper free of charge in Materials (ISSN: 1996-1944) following peer review before the end of December 2025.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the Materials 2025 Best Paper Award on their accomplishments. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for their continued support of Materials and the Award Committee for voting and helping with this award.

Materials Editorial Office