Collection Overview
Scientific Reports has launched a Guest-Edited Collection on Colloidal and soft metamaterials.
Colloidal and soft metamaterials refer to artificially structured systems composed of soft or colloidal building blocks—such as nanoparticles, polymers, emulsions, or responsive gels—engineered to exhibit properties not found in natural materials. Unlike traditional metamaterials, which are typically rigid and fabricated using top-down lithographic techniques, colloidal and soft metamaterials leverage bottom-up self-assembly, tunable interparticle interactions, and stimuli-responsive components to achieve dynamic, reconfigurable, and often multifunctional behavior. The significance of this field lies in its ability to merge the programmability and responsiveness of soft matter physics with the functional complexity of metamaterial design, opening up possibilities for adaptive optics, mechanical cloaking, programmable photonics, and soft robotics.
This Collection aims to unite research efforts on multi-responsive metamaterials that adapt to complex environments, hierarchically structured systems that couple multiple length scales for broadband functionality, and active metamaterials that incorporate motile or energy‑consuming components to break time‑reversal symmetry. We also welcome studies addressing the scalable, defect‑tolerant fabrication of three‑dimensional architectures with precise control over topology and functionality, particularly under non‑equilibrium conditions.
This will be a Collection of original research papers and will be open for submissions from all authors – on the condition that the manuscripts fall within the scope of the Collection and of Scientific Reports more generally. Narrative review articles are also welcomed, to our sister journal Scientific Reviews. We are welcoming submissions until 30th January 2027.
Why is this Collection important?
"Colloidal and soft metamaterials are an exciting frontier because they combine bottom-up self-assembly with responsiveness, adaptability, and non-equilibrium behaviour, offering new routes to materials that can sense, reorganise, and perform complex functions. These concepts connect naturally with research on nanoparticles, chemically driven systems, synthetic cells, and collective dynamics. Particularly exciting is the possibility of identifying common design principles and translating them into applications ranging from sensing and catalysis to drug delivery, photonics, and soft robotics. Studies focused on the synthesis, characterisation, and application of colloidal, nanoparticle-based, and soft material systems are also highly welcome."
- Dr. Federico Rossi, Guest Editor
Why submit to a collection?
Collections like this one help promote high-quality science. They are led by Guest Editors, who are experts in their fields, and In-House Editors and are supported by a dedicated team of Commissioning Editors and Managing Editors at Springer Nature. Collection manuscripts typically see higher citations, downloads, and Altmetric scores and provide a one-stop-shop on a cutting-edge topic of interest.
Who is involved?
Guest Editors:
- Paola Albanese, University of Siena, Italy
- Andrew Parnell, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Federico Rossi, University of Siena, Italy
Internal Team:
- In-House Editor: Chenyu Wang, Scientific Reports, USA
- Commissioning Editor: Quintina Dawson, Fully OA Brands, Springer Nature, UK
- Managing Editor: Eleanor Smith, Fully OA Brands, Springer Nature, UK
How can I submit my paper?
Visit the Collection page for more information on the Collection, and how to submit your article.