**Preface to "Exclusive Papers of the Editorial Board Members (EBMs) of the Materials Chemistry Section of Molecules"**

This book covers the recent contributions to the development of the "Materials Chemistry" research fields by the Editorial Board Members of the "Materials Chemistry" Section of Molecules in 2020.

The "Materials Chemistry" Section of Molecules, taking advantages from knowledge in chemistry, biotechnology, chemical engineering, physics, and materials science, aims to be an open access place for the dissemination of theoretical and experimental studies related to the chemical approaches to materials-based problems.

The Materials Section benefits from the cooperation of 137 Editorial Board Members, whose scientific contributions highlight the importance of an interdisciplinary environment where the different expertise act synergistically to focus the progress in the field of creating and manipulating new materials.

In this book, 13 papers (either research and review article) dealing with some of facet of Materials Chemistry are collected. The aim is to provide readers with a vision of the relevance of papers covering studies related to both the synthesis and characterization of organic and inorganic materials.

Some of the collected papers focused on synthetic approach to materials science.

Andrade et al. provided an overview of the 2015-2020 literature works covering the implementation of unconventional methodologies in carbon–carbon (C–C) cross-coupling reactions, including the use of alternative energy sources to solvent- free and green media protocols.

Garc´ıa Velazquez et al. described a microwave-assisted synthetic approach for the fabrication ´ of water-soluble π -conjugated hexaazatrinaphthylenes-based dendritic architectures constructed by hexaketocyclohexane and 1,2,4,5-benzenetetramine units.

Chalmpes et al. presented the preparation of carbon nanosheets and fullerols through spontaneous ignition processes where coffee and fullerenes played the role of the combustible fuel, whereas sodium peroxide acted as strong oxidizer.

Balestrat et al. investigated the pyrolysis of a liquid poly(vinylmethyl-co-methyl)silazane modified by tetrakis(dimethylamido)titanium in flowing ammonia, nitrogen and argon followed by the annealing of as-pyrolyzed ceramic powders for the synthesis of Si-Ti-N and Si-Ti-C nanocomposite systems.

Dibenedetto et al. focused the attention of their research on TiO2/PbS heterostructures, interesting materials for applications in different fields including catalysis, biomedicine, and energy conversion. Authors investigated the synthesis as a function of the experimental conditions and the heterostructures in terms of topology, structural properties, and optical properties

Pallavicini et al. examined different polymeric coatings for spherical gold nanoparticles, with the aim of maintaining their spectral stability both in liquid inks and in dry prints, key feature for their use in secure writing of photothermally readable information.

Bijelic et al. synthesized perovskites with Sr2NiMO6 (M = Te, W) structure using aqueous citrate ´ sol-gel route. The work aimed to address the great interest on double perovskites properties, which is related to the coexistence of ferro/ferri/antiferro-magnetic ground state and semiconductor band gap within the same material.

Other contributions are related on the theoretical and experimental characterization of materials properties.

To this regard, De Giorgi et al. focused their research on the comprehension of the environmental effects on the optical and electronic properties of lead halide perovskites, with the ultimate aim to describe the state of the art for development of perovskite-based sensors.

Arshid et al. employed a quasi-3D hyperbolic shear deformation theory, together with the Hamilton's principle and the modified couple stress theory, to analyze the vibrational behavior of rectangular micro-scale sandwich plates resting on a visco-Pasternak foundation. Authors aimed to provide new insights many modern engineering applications and their optimization design.

Vyazovkin's paper is focused on the applications of the Kissinger method to estimate the activation energy of different processes, including chemical reactions, crystallization and glass transition. Author gave a theoretical discussion to explain the origins of the complex temperature dependence of the respective rate, and then applied the Kissinger method to some available experimental data.

Finally, biomedical application of materials is the topic of the last three papers of the book.

In the first of them, Curulli made an overview on the application of different nanomaterials and nanocomposites with tailored morphological properties as sensing platforms for food analysis, with particular attention to the sensors based on carbon-based nanomaterials, metallic nanomaterials, and related nanocomposites

Schlachet et al. aimed to evaluate the biodistribution of mixed amphiphilic mucoadhesive nanoparticles made of chitosan-g-poly(methyl methacrylate) and poly(vinyl alcohol)-g-poly(methyl methacrylate) and ionotropically crosslinked with sodium tripolyphosphate in the brain after intravenous and intranasal administration.

The biomedical part of the book is closed by Cirillo et al., who provided evidence that a multifunctional hybrid hydrogel made of a caffeic-acid-sodium alginate bioconjugate and graphene oxidecan act as a platform to either provide the electro-responsive release of biologically active molecules such as Lysozyme or facilitate its crystallization under oxidative stress.

> **Giuseppe Cirillo** *Editor*
