Special Issue:“Structural and Functional Materials Design Based on Multi-Scale Architecture Analyses and Controls －Important Roles of Various Lattice Defects, Interfaces, and Interphase Boundaries－”

The editorial committee of Materials Transactions is planning to publish a special issue on “Structural and Functional Materials Design Based on Multi-Scale Architecture Analyses and Controls －Important Roles of Various Lattice Defects, Interfaces, and Interphase Boundaries－” as August 2026.
The committee would like to invite many contributions of original articles from around the globe for this special issue.

Objective and topics of coverage are as follows:
The design principles of structural and functional materials can be understood by considering the entire structure of materials across multiple scales as architecture, i.e., from atomic-level crystal structures to nano-, micro-, and macro-scale lattice defects, interfaces, interphase boundaries. Lattice defects and interfaces are closely related to the origins of physical and chemical properties of crystalline materials, and we aim to optimize the properties of materials and effectively improve their performance by skillfully controlling of them. In other words, establishing control methods of lattice defects and phase interfaces based on their precise analyses could lead to breakthroughs and play an important role in material design and manufacturing process development. The purpose of this special issue is to deepen understanding from phenomenology toward mechanism for individual materials by focusing on lattice defects, interfaces, and interphase boundaries through systematizing similarities and differences by analogy for a wide variety of different materials, and ultimately to reconstruct scientific principles common to a wide range of specialized research fields. For example, diffusion and transport phenomena, being closely related to architecture, could be mechanisms commonly considered in various materials, and are important rate-controlling factors of individual key reactions and processes. Subjected materials and properties are so diverse, such as “vacancies, dislocations, and planar faults, interfaces, interphase boundaries in structural materials to govern strength and ductility”, “high-temperature creep deformation mechanisms in heat-resistant alloys”, “solidification, precipitation, phase transformations, nucleation and growth, and coarsening in microstructure formation”, “transport properties of electrons, ions, and phonons in electronic materials and devices”, “structure alignment and texture formation in biomaterials”, “interface mobility and strain recovery of thermoelastic martensitic transformation in superelastic and shape memory alloys”, “magnetic domains mobility and external magnetic field effects on materials”, “mass transfer in oxidation-reduction processes in refining processes”, “alloy phase diagrams related to phase equilibria and kinetics”, and so forth. We gently encourage you to submit papers that go beyond the boundaries of different fields of expertise, without being confined to existing frameworks of materials, such as structural materials and functional materials, or metals, alloys, and ceramics.

Topics:
Crystal structure, Microstructure, Lattice defect, Interface, Interphase boundary, Grain boundary, Dislocation, Vacancy, Diffusion, Physical properties, Chemical Properties

Manuscripts due: February 2, 2026

Editorial Committee of Materials Transactions
1-14-32, Ichibancho, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8544, Japan
Submission: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/matertrans
E-mail: sadoku[at]jimm.jp