Materials Today is the flagship journal of the Materials Today family and is dedicated to covering the most innovative, cutting edge and influential work of broad interest to the materials science community.

Having established the journal as one of the most highly respected sources of news and reviews in materials science over the last two decades, Materials Today has expanded its scope to cover ground breaking original research in materials science, and aims to become a leading forum in the field.

The editors welcome comprehensive articles and short communications reporting breakthrough discoveries and major technical achievements as well as review articles from established leaders in engaging and rapidly developing fields within materials science and related disciplines.

Materials Today offers authors rigorous peer review, rapid publication, and maximum visibility. The journal expects to accept only the most significant submitted manuscripts, but will provide very rapid evaluation to prevent publication delays.

The growing Materials Today family provides authors and readers with comprehensive coverage across materials science, spanning ground breaking discoveries to highly specialized research; including such journals as Applied Materials Today, Materials Today Energy, and Materials Today Chemistry - in addition to the dedicated proceedings journal Materials Today: Proceedings, and sound science publication Materials Today Communications.

For more information on the wider Materials Today family visit http://www.materialstoday.com/about

Special Issue on Advances in 3D Printing of Soft Materials
Submission Date: 2024-04-30

This Special Issue aims to compile cutting-edge research on 3D/4D printing soft materials.

Special issue information:

Soft materials are renowned for their remarkable flexibility and ability to imitate biological tissues, and they are implemented in a variety of applications, including soft robotics and the manufacture of biomedical devices, flexible electronics, and advanced textiles. 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, enables limitless design freedom and the precise fabrication of soft materials with customizable multifunctional properties in the absence of expensive tools, molds, or lithographic masks. 4D printing, which adds the fourth dimension “time” to the 3D printed complex structures, enables 3D printing structures and devices with dynamic behaviors. In recent years, researchers have actively sought to broaden the range of printable materials and develop advanced 3D/4D printing technologies capable of controlling the composition and framework of printed soft materials to endow them with multimaterial, multiscale, and multifunctional properties.

This Special Issue aims to compile cutting-edge research on 3D/4D printing soft materials. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following subjects:

    Material Innovation: Novel soft materials with extraordinary mechanical or functional properties tailored for 3D/4D printing.​
    Printing Technologies: Advances in 3D/4D printing techniques, such as extrusion-based, vat photopolymerization, and powder-based processes, which are suitable for soft material fabrication.
    Digital design and Simulation: Cutting-edge design methodologies and simulation tools for optimizing 3D/4D printing processes for soft materials and enhancing product performance.
    Biomedical Applications: Breakthroughs in 3D/4D printing regarding the manufacture of soft tissue constructs, drug delivery systems, prosthetics, and other medical devices.
    Soft Robotics: The integration of soft materials and 3D/4D printing to develop flexible and adaptable robotic systems.
    Flexible Electronics: 3D/4D printing of soft materials for implementation in flexible circuits, wearable electronics, conformal sensors, and other flexible devices.

Manuscript submission information:

The journal’s submission platform (Editorial Manager®) will be available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript, and select the article type of "VSI: Soft Material Printing" when submitting your manuscript online. Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal could be found on the Journal Homepage here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/materials-today
All the submissions deemed suitable to be sent for peer review will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Upon its editorial acceptance, your article will go into production immediately. It will be published in the latest regular issue, while be presented on the specific Special Issue webpage simultaneously. In regular issues, Special Issue articles will be clearly marked and branded.

Submission deadline: 30-Apr-2024

Keywords:

Additive manufacturing, Soft materials, 4D printing, Design and simulation, Biomedical applications, Soft robotics