Announcements

We are pleased to inform you that Separations (ISSN: 2297-8739, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/separations) has received a new Impact Factor (IF) of 3.344, with the following ranking:

• 37/87 (Q2) in the “Chemistry, Analytical” category.

We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to our authors, readers, reviewers, and board members (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/separations/editors). Your efforts are highly appreciated and indispensable to the continued success of the journal Separations!

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative—the Special Issue Mentor Program.

This program intends to provide an opportunity for early career scientists to enhance their editing, networking, and organizational skills and to work closely with our journal to gain more editorial experience. Early career scientists who have novel ideas for new Separations Special Issues will act as Guest Editors under the mentorship of an experienced scientist; this mentor could be a member of the Editorial Board of Separations (ISSN 2079-6439), from other well-established research institutes or laboratories, etc.

The mentee’s responsibilities include:

• Providing a CV, including a list of publications;
• Proposing a Special Issue title and a short introduction;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Writing an editorial for the online Special Issue;
• Reviewing and making decisions for submissions under the mentorship of our Editorial Board Members.

The mentor’s responsibilities include:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Co-editing the Special Issue with younger scholars and performing quality control of the publications in the Special Issue;
• Providing suggestions to younger scholars if they have doubts or concerns regarding submissions;
• Organizing video calls with young scholars and the office regularly to discuss problems and improvement suggestions for the Special Issue.

Certificates and awards:

When the Special Issue is closed, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all the mentors. The younger scholars will be prioritized as candidates for Separations Young Investigator Awards in future editions.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Separations Editorial Office (separations@mdpi.com), and we will discuss the process (mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, Separations continues to welcome all Special Issue proposals based on hot research topics as usual.

Separations Editorial Office

The 2021 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

For more information on Impact Factors and what it means to index academic journals, please visit our related blog posts.

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2022

Source: 2021 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2022)

MDPI’s Young Investigator Awards recognize promising junior researchers, acknowledge their contributions, and enhance communication among scientists. We are proud to present the winners for the year 2021 in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category. The winners were selected by the journals’ editors.

We warmly congratulate the awarded Young Investigators for their outstanding contributions.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Coatings:

• Marta Mohedano, Complutense University of Madrid-UCM, Spain

Materials:

• Edoardo Baldini, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Magnetochemistry:

• Mauro Perfetti, University of Florence, Italy

Membranes:

• Xu Hou, Xiamen University, China

Molecules:

• Biplab Maji, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India

Nanomaterials:

• Andres Castellanos-Gomez, Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Madrid, Spain
• Takuya Isono, Hokkaido University, Japan
• Panbo Liu, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China

In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who so generously dedicate their time to reviewing papers and demonstrate diligence, professionalism, and timeliness when reviewing manuscripts, MDPI journals regularly offer outstanding reviewer awards to scholars who participate in the peer-review process.

We are proud to recognize the winners for the year 2021 in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with the Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners on their achievement.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Catalysts:

• Rahat Javaid, Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, Japan
• Georgios Bampos, University of Patras, Greece
• Esmail Doustkhah, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan
• Pawan Kumar, University of Alberta, Canada

Magnetochemistry:

• Lorenzo Sorace, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy

Materials:

• Khaled Giasin, University of Portsmouth, UK
• Oldrich Sucharda, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
• Danil Pimenov, South Ural State University, Russia
• Marián Palcut, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia

Metals:

• Khaled Giasin, University of Portsmouth, UK
• Catalin Pruncu, University of Strathclyde, UK
• Jacek Tomków, Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland
• Alexander Yu Churyumov, National University of Science and Technology (MISiS), Russia
• Hesam Pouraliakbar, Chungnam National University, South Korea

Nanomaterials:

• George Kenanakis, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Greece
• Goshtasp Cheraghian, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
• Oana Cadar, Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation, Romania

Polymers:

• Sawsan A. Zaitone, Suez Canal University, Saudi Arabia
• Lucia Baldino, University of Salerno Via Giovanni Paolo II, Fisciano (SA) Italy
• Gyorgy Szekely, University of Manchester, UK
• Bin Jiang, Northeast Agricultural University, China
• Haibao Lu, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

The purpose of our Best Paper Awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.

The editors of each journal carefully selected reviews and research papers through a rigorous judging process based on criteria such as the scientific merit, overall impact, and the quality of presentation of the papers published in the journal last year.

We are honored to present the winners in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category, who were selected amongst the extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

C — Journal of Carbon Research：

• “Activated Carbons Derived from High-Temperature Pyrolysis of Lignocellulosic Biomass”
  by Cristian I. Contescu, Shiba P. Adhikari, Nidia C. Gallego, Neal D. Evans and Bryan E. Biss
  C 2018, 4(3), 51; doi:10.3390/c4030051

Catalysts:

• “Hydrogen Oxidation on Ni-Based Electrocatalysts: The Effect of Metal Doping”
  by Elena S. Davydova, Jérémie Zaffran, Kapil Dhaka, Maytal Caspary Toroker and Dario R. Dekel
  Catalysts 2018, 8(10), 454; doi:10.3390/catal8100454
• “Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production: Role of Sacrificial Reagents on the Activity of Oxide, Carbon, and Sulfide Catalysts”
  by Vignesh Kumaravel, Muhammad Danyal Imam, Ahmed Badreldin, Rama Krishna Chava, Jeong Yeon Do, Misook Kang and Ahmed Abdel-Wahab
  Catalysts 2019, 9(3), 276; doi:10.3390/catal9030276
• “A General Overview of Support Materials for Enzyme Immobilization: Characteristics, Properties, Practical Utility”
  by Jakub Zdarta, Anne S. Meyer, Teofil Jesionowski and Manuel Pinelo
  Catalysts 2018, 8(2), 92; doi:10.3390/catal8020092
• “Mechanistic Insights into Photodegradation of Organic Dyes Using Heterostructure Photocatalysts”
  by Yi-Hsuan Chiu, Tso-Fu Mark Chang, Chun-Yi Chen, Masato Sone and Yung-Jung Hsu
  Catalysts 2019, 9(5), 430; doi:10.3390/catal9050430

Ceramics:

• “Chemical Preparation Routes and Lowering the Sintering Temperature of Ceramics”
  by Philippe Colomban
  Ceramics 2020, 3(3), 312–339; doi:10.3390/ceramics3030029

Coatings:

• “State of the Art in Directed Energy Deposition: From Additive Manufacturing to Materials Design”
  by Adrita Dass and Atieh Moridi
  Coatings 2019, 9(7), 418; doi:10.3390/coatings9070418
• “Encapsulation of Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells: A Review”
  by Ashraf Uddin, Mushfika Baishakhi Upama, Haimang Yi and Leiping Duan
  Coatings 2019, 9(2), 65; doi:10.3390/coatings9020065
• “Poly (Lactic Acid)/Thermoplastic Starch Films: Effect of Cardoon Seed Epoxidized Oil on Their Chemicophysical, Mechanical, and Barrier Properties”
  by Rosa Turco, Rodrigo Ortega-Toro, Riccardo Tesser, Salvatore Mallardo, Sofia Collazo-Bigliardi, Amparo Chiralt Boix, Mario Malinconico, Massimo Rippa, Martino Di Serio and Gabriella Santagata
  Coatings 2019, 9(9), 574; doi:10.3390/coatings9090574
• “Physical and Morphological Characterization of Chitosan/Montmorillonite Films Incorporated with Ginger Essential Oil”
  by Victor Gomes Lauriano Souza, João Ricardo Afonso Pires, Carolina Rodrigues, Patricia Freitas Rodrigues, Andréia Lopes, Rui Jorge Silva, Jorge Caldeira, Maria Paula Duarte, Francisco Braz Fernandes, Isabel Maria Coelhoso and Ana Luisa Fernando
  Coatings 2019, 9(11), 700; doi:10.3390/coatings9110700
• “Application and Evaluation of a Pectin-Based Edible Coating Process for Quality Change Kinetics and Shelf-Life Extension of Lime Fruit (Citrus aurantifolium)”
  by Neda Maftoonazad and Hosahalli S. Ramaswamy
  Coatings 2019, 9(5), 285; doi:10.3390/coatings9050285

Crystals:

• “Crystal and Magnetic Structures in Layered, Transition Metal Dihalides and Trihalides”
  by Michael A. McGuire
  Crystals 2017, 7(5), 121; doi:10.3390/cryst7050121
• “σ-Hole Interactions: Perspectives and Misconceptions”
  by Peter Politzer and Jane S. Murray
  Crystals 2017, 7(7), 212; doi:10.3390/cryst7070212
• “σ-Hole Interactions of Covalently-Bonded Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Arsenic: A Survey of Crystal Structures”
  by Peter Politzer, Jane S. Murray, Goran V. Janjić and Snežana D. Zarić 
  Crystals 2014, 4(1), 12-31; doi:10.3390/cryst4010012
• “Epitaxial Graphene on SiC: A Review of Growth and Characterization”
  by Gholam Reza Yazdi, Tihomir Iakimov and Rositsa Yakimova
  Crystals 2016, 6(5), 53; doi:10.3390/cryst6050053

Magnetochemistry:

• “A Clock Transition in the Cr₇Mn Molecular Nanomagnet”
  by Charles A. Collett, Kai-Isaak Ellers, Nicholas Russo, Kevin R. Kittilstved, Grigore A. Timco, Richard E. P. Winpenny and Jonathan R. Friedman
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(1), 4; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5010004
• “A Series of Field-Induced Single-Ion Magnets Based on the Seven-Coordinate Co(II) Complexes with the Pentadentate (N₃O₂) H₂dapsc Ligand”
  by Vyacheslav A. Kopotkov, Denis V. Korchagin, Valentina D. Sasnovskaya, Ildar F. Gilmutdinov and Eduard B. Yagubskii
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(4), 58; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5040058
• “Magnetic Janus Particles for Static and Dynamic (Bio)Sensing”
  by Susana Campuzano, Maria Gamella, Verónica Serafín, María Pedrero, Paloma Yáñez-Sedeño and José Manuel Pingarrón
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(3), 47; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5030047

Membranes:

• “Composite Membranes for High Temperature PEM Fuel Cells and Electrolysers: A Critical Review”
  by Xinwei Sun, Stian Christopher Simonsen, Truls Norby and Athanasios Chatzitakis
  Membranes 2019, 9(7), 83; doi:10.3390/membranes9070083

• “Transport Characteristics of Fujifilm Ion-Exchange Membranes as Compared to Homogeneous Membranes AMX and CMX and to Heterogeneous Membranes MK-40 and MA-41”
  by Veronika Sarapulova, Inna Shkorkina, Semyon Mareev, Natalia Pismenskaya, Natalia Kononenko, Christian Larchet, Lasaad Dammak and Victor Nikonenko
  Membranes 2019, 9(7), 84; doi:10.3390/membranes9070084

Nanomaterials:

• “Nanomaterials for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater”
  by Jinyue Yang, Baohong Hou, Jingkang Wang, Beiqian Tian, Jingtao Bi, Na Wang, Xin Li and Xin Huang
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(3), 424; doi:10.3390/nano9030424
• “Injectable Alginate-Peptide Composite Hydrogel as a Scaffold for Bone Tissue Regeneration”
  Moumita Ghosh, Michal Halperin-Sternfeld, Itzhak Grinberg and Lihi Adler-Abramovich
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(4), 497; doi:10.3390/nano9040497
• “Carbon Dots and Graphene Quantum Dots in Electrochemical Biosensing”
  by Susana Campuzano, Paloma Yáñez-Sedeño and José M. Pingarrón
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(4), 634; doi:10.3390/nano9040634
• “A Smart Nanovector for Cancer Targeted Drug Delivery Based on Graphene Quantum Dots”
  by Daniela Iannazzo, Alessandro Pistone, Consuelo Celesti, Claudia Triolo, Salvatore Patané, Salvatore V. Giofré, Roberto Romeo, Ida Ziccarelli, Raffaella Mancuso, Bartolo Gabriele, Giuseppa Visalli, Alessio Facciolà and Angela Di Pietro
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(2), 282; doi:10.3390/nano9020282
• “Evolution of Wearable Devices with Real-Time Disease Monitoring for Personalized Healthcare”
  by Kyeonghye Guk, Gaon Han, Jaewoo Lim, Keunwon Jeong, Taejoon Kang, Eun-Kyung Lim and Juyeon Jung
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(6), 813; doi:10.3390/nano9060813
• “An Ultra-High-Energy Density Supercapacitor; Fabrication Based on Thiolfunctionalized Graphene”
  by Janardhanan. R. Rani, Ranjith Thangavel, Se-I Oh, Yun Sung Lee and Jae-Hyung Jang
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(2), 148; doi:10.3390/nano9020148

Polymers:

• “The Relationships between the Working Fluids, Process Characteristics and Products from the Modified Coaxial Electrospinning of Zein”
  by Menglong Wang, Tao Hai, Zhangbin Feng, Deng-Guang Yu, Yaoyao Yang and SW Annie Bligh 
  Polymers 2019, 11(8), 1287; doi:10.3390/polym11081287
• “Design of Controlled Release System for Paracetamol Based on Modified Lignin”
  by Mahboubeh Pishnamazi, Hamid Hafizi, Saeed Shirazian, Mario Culebras, Gavin M. Walker and Maurice N. Collins 
  Polymers 2019, 11(6), 1059; doi:10.3390/polym11061059
• “Additive Manufacturing of PLA-Based Composites Using Fused Filament Fabrication: Effect of Graphene Nanoplatelet Reinforcement on Mechanical Properties, Dimensional Accuracy and Texture”
  by Miguel Ángel Caminero, Jesús Miguel Chacón, Eustaquio García-Plaza, Pedro José Núñez, José María Reverte and Jean Paul Becar
  Polymers 2019, 11(5), 799; doi:10.3390/polym11050799
• “Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites: Manufacturing, Properties, and Applications”
  by Miguel Ángel Caminero, Jesús Miguel Chacón, ,Eustaquio García-Plaza, Pedro José Núñez, José María Reverte and Jean Paul Becar
  Polymers 2019, 11(10), 1667; doi:10.3390/polym11101667 

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category for their outstanding presentations.

MDPI journals regularly offer travel awards to encourage talented junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in specific fields, which helps to increase their influence.

The winners mentioned below were carefully selected by the journal editors based on an outline of their research and the work to be presented at an academic conference.

We would like to warmly congratulate the winners of Travel Awards for the year 2021 and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors.

MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Crystals:

• Gaojun Mao, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland
• Lidia Bofill Herrera, University of Barcelona, Spain

Gels:

• Demetra Giuri, University of Bologna, Italy
• Martina Genta, Imperial College London, UK

Journal of Functional Biomaterials:

• Anushree Seth, Washington University, USA

Magnetochemistry:

• Fabio Ferreira, University of Coimbra, Portugal
• Giulia Serrano, University of Florence, Italy

Materials：

• Giulia Fredi, University of Trento, Italy
• Mattia Biesuz, Czech Academy of Science, Czech Republic

Metals:

• Adriana Eres-Castellanos, Spanish National Center for Metallurgical Research, Spain
• Pavel Shurkin, National University of Science and Technology, Russia

Nanomaterials:

• Aleksandrs Leitis, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, France
• Ekaterina Kolesova, ITMO, Russia

Separations:

• Christoph Gstoettner, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands

The 2021 citation metrics have been officially released in Scopus!

We are pleased to announce that 182 MDPI journals are included, of which:

● 21 journals received their first CiteScore.
● 85% of journals increased their CiteScore from 2020.
● 155 journals (85%) ranked above average, in at least one category.

The following 65 MDPI journals (36%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category:

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

Separations (ISSN 2297-8739) is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal on separation and purification science and technology in all areas of chemical, biological, physical science, and separation performance that is published monthly online by MDPI.

The Separations editorial team is pleased to announce this open call for Special Issue proposals, providing a group of authors the opportunity to work on an interconnected set of papers on an innovative topic. We would like to solicit high-quality proposals that will be evaluated via a competitive procedure on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Proposals within the scope of the journal are welcome. For more details, please see: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/separations/about.

If you would like to propose a Special Issue topic for this journal, please click the following link and then complete and submit the form: https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/separations. Our editors will get back to you shortly.

The duties and benefits of acting as a Guest Editor are as follows:

• Providing potential discount for additional papers you invite;
• Redefining the title and scope of the Special Issue;
• Circulating the call for papers for the Special Issue and inviting submissions;
• Making decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted or not based on the reports we collect;
• Promoting the Special Issue and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences;
• If five or more papers are published in this Special Issue, we can make a Special Issue book and send a hard copy to each Guest Editor.

The Editorial Office will take care of setting up the Special Issue website and will arrange the promotional materials, assist with invitations for paper contributions, and take care of the rest of the administrative tasks associated with the peer review process (including inviting reviewers, collating reports, contacting authors, and professional production before publication).

Please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office (separations@mdpi.com) for further details and clarification.

We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Separations Editorial Office

We are happy to announce the establishment of a new Section “Chromatographic Separations” in Separations (ISSN 2297-8739). The Section is currently recruiting an Editor-in-Chief.

The Section “Chromatographic Separations” aims to publish articles on original research based on chromatographic methods and novel hyphenated analytical solutions. Further information about the Section may be found at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/separations/sections/chromatographic_separations.

The Section Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the following:

• Defining the aims and scope of the Section;
• Advising on the strategic development of the Section;
• Ensuring that the published content is of high quality;
• Nominating/inviting Guest Editors and optionally providing them with the authority to make final acceptance decisions about submitted articles;
• Nominating/inviting contributors;
• Nominating and leading the Section Editorial Board;
• Promoting the journal at scientific conferences or through other venues;
• Conducting preliminary checks of submissions and making the final decision as to whether a paper can be accepted for publication following peer review and author revisions (when it suits your schedule).

To apply for this position, please contact the Separations Editorial Office (separations@mdpi.com) with the two files below attached:

• A full academic CV;
• A short cover letter that details your interest and enthusiasm for the position.

Separations Editorial Office