Recent Advances in Metal-Polymer Nanocomposites

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, several new chemical techniques for the synthesis of metal-polymer nanocomposites have appeared in the literature. Such progress in chemical synthesis has made great morphological and topological control for this important class of nanostructured materials possible. Owing to the strong correlation between physical/chemical properties and structure (i.e., size, shape, aggregation, etc.) that characterizes all nanoscopic systems, the possibility to control during the synthesis of both morphology and topology represents a very relevant aspect for the industrial use that these materials can have. Polymer-embedded metal nanostructures are typically prepared by precursor thermolysis or photolysis, a chemical reduction of salts, sonochemical approaches, etc. Innovations in this field are represented by one-pot synthesis, sustainable approaches, and continuous-flow techniques. These nanostructured materials are used mostly for advanced magnetic applications, new capacitors, batteries, sensing materials, actuators, etc. Nowadays, all industrial sectors try to obtain more efficiency by reducing raw material use, minimizing the produced wastes, optimizing the energy consumption, and at same time, improving the performance of their products. Nanotechnology and nanomaterials can play an important role in achieving these goals. Materials become interfaces to interact with the world, to inform users of their possibilities, to provide valid clues about how they can be used, and to become material and immaterial extensions of humans—transforming, enhancing, and amplifying their sensory and mental capacities, thus, their perception of reality. The boundary between natural and artificial is becoming increasingly blurred; technology and material science come so close to humans that they become invisible, changing the nature of the relationship between humans and artifacts. Nanotechnology and nanomaterials can write a new and more sustainable future.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect short communication, long review and full-length papers including up-to-date experimental and theoretical information on this great field of material science. In addition, review-paper contributions that are capable of providing an overview in this field have additionally been planned.

Dr. Angela Longo
Dr. Mariano Palomba
Guest Editors

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. Nanomaterials 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 2400 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.