Posted by Cyclodextrins (CDs) have become a very common building-block for the design of new smart materials of different nature. This is due to their very special features that combine their encapsulation abilities for a large variety of hydrophobic active molecules with biocompatibility, good stability in biological media and water solubility. Thus, these oligosaccharides have gained a special consideration for pharmaceutical applications. In addition, their well-known chemistry allows for the attachment of different appendages on their many hydroxyl groups in a relatively easy fashion. With these advantages in mind, new materials incorporating CDs in their structures have arisen for drug delivery, catalysis and imaging purposes in fields including pharmacy, cosmetics, food industries, water treatments, agriculture and biomedicine. Indeed, polymers, micelles, vesicles, nanoparticles, hydrogels, electrodes, nanotubes, graphene, or nanoswitches can be found among more than 45,000 articles and patents published on these cyclooligosaccharides and their derivatives only in the last 10 years.
Thus, we would like to invite all researchers interested in making visible their new creations involving CDs to contribute to the special issue of Materials “Cyclodextrin-based nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications”. Full papers, communications, and reviews discussing the preparation, the properties and applications of such new materials whose structure and/or functional properties are determined by the presence of CDs are welcome.
Materials is a peer-reviewed open access journal of materials science of high visibility, indexed in the Material Science – Multidisciplinary JCR category with an Impact factor of 2.467 in 2017.
We believe that this Special Issue will constitute an appreciated contribution to the dissemination of such valuable developments in chemistry.
Prof. Antonio Vargas-Berenguel
Dr. Juan Manuel Casas-Solvas
Guest Editors
Department of Chemistry and Physics
University of Almeria, Spain