Functional Crystal Materials: Challenges and Opportunities
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 1796
Special Issue Editor
Interests: crystallization thermodynamics; crystallization kinetics, involved nucleation, and crystal growth kinetics; functional crystal materials; self-assembly materials; chiral separation (typically by using crystallization technology); brine chemical engineering and the ecological utilization of resources; crystal engineering (polymorphism, co-crystal, salt, solvates); separation and purification technology
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Functional crystal materials currently play a crucial role in multidisciplinary fields such as chemistry, materials science, crystal engineering, pharmaceutical science, environmental science, and earth science.
Further discussions regarding the design of multifunctional crystal structures and materials based on structure–property relationships have already resulted in significant advances in all directions of science and technology, and will undoubtedly lead to further insights and new horizons concerning the directional design of multifunctional crystal materials from a molecular perspective. Therefore, we encourage scientists to submit papers presenting studies devoted to the directional design of multifunctional crystal materials based on crystal engineering at the molecular scale and mesoscale level. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:
- Experimental, theoretical, or combined perspective views on crystal engineering and molecular simulation in organic, inorganic and physical chemistry.
- Prediction, screening and precise preparation of polymorphisms, co-crystals, solvates and salts based on the crystal engineering strategy.
- Development design strategy for functionalized nanocrystalline materials, multi-stimulus-responsive crystals, optical crystal materials, energy storage crystal materials, energetic crystal materials.
- Physical interpretations and molecular insights into the molecular self-assembly process.
- Application of artificial intelligence in crystal engineering and crystal material development.
We sincerely invite scientists working in a range of experimental and theoretical fields to contribute their work to this Special Issue in order to provide a deeper insight into the structure–property relationships in multi-functional crystal materials and the molecular self-assembly process.
Dr. Shijie Xu
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. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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
- functional crystal materials
- crystal engineering
- structure-property relationship
- multi stimulus responsive crystals
- artificial intelligence
- molecular self-assembly
- meso-scale
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