Environmentally Friendly Gels
A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Processing and Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 29
Special Issue Editors
Interests: gel electrolyte materials; functional polymer materials
Interests: carbon; electrode; lithium battery; membrane; hydrophobic/hydrophilic membrane; non-solvent-induced phase separation; gels
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: electrochromism; energy storage; polymer deformation; gels; sensing; bionics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue on “Environmentally Friendly Gels” focuses on recent advances in biodegradable gels for ion adsorption in water treatment and electrochemical ion transport, covering the entire research pipeline from theoretical calculations, crosslinking synthesis, and physical characterization to practical applications. Topics will span interdisciplinary discussions on aggregated structure and dynamics, dynamic and adaptive behavior, and ion transport applications.
Environmentally friendly gels represent complex polymer systems whose properties are governed by chain connectivity, secondary bonding interactions, and multi-scale intermolecular forces. Despite their significance in ecology, electrochemistry, and materials science, progress in ion mass transfer-related research has been hindered by the complexity of these interactions. Environmentally friendly gels find broad applications in materials science and engineering, including energy storage materials, separation technologies, and catalytic degradation. Through multi-scale structural regulation, these gels can address numerous technological challenges, while precise macromolecular and supramolecular design offers innovative opportunities for ion mass transfer. Breakthroughs in this field require interdisciplinary collaboration to deeply understand the structure and interactions of complex functional gel systems, enabling precise tuning of material properties.
Given the breadth of environmentally friendly gel science, this Special Issue will feature select representative cases to highlight the complexity and challenges of the field, hoping to inspire new research and discoveries in the gel community.
Dr. Hang Zhang
Dr. Guiying Tian
Prof. Dr. Jinhui Wang
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. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2100 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
- environmentally friendly gels
- biodegradable aggregation
- synthesis theory
- multi-level polymer structures
- ion mass transfer
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