The Journal of The Electrochemical Society is publishing a focus issue in connection with the Heterogeneous Functional Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage 4 symposium held at the 249th ECS Meeting in Seattle, WA, from May 24–28, 2026.
Heterogeneous functional materials (HeteroFoaMs) are pervasive in electrochemical devices. These devices consist of multiple materials combined at multiple scales (from atomic to macro) that actively interact during their functional history in a manner that controls their collective performance as a system at the global level. The principal motivation for this focus issue is to provide a place to publish the science that controls emergent properties in heterogeneous functional materials as a foundation for design of functional material devices with performance not bound by constituent properties.
This virtual issue focuses on papers covering the following topics:
- Novel modeling approaches to elucidate fundamental phenomena in 3-D microstructures
- Advanced 3-D imaging and characterization techniques
- New constitutive theory to correlate material properties to performance
- Advanced material synthesis and manufacturing methods to create highly ordered microstructures
- New concepts for the design of novel materials for electrochemical applications
- Applications of heterogeneous functional materials in devices for energy
The Journal of The Electrochemical Society invites researchers to submit articles in the following topical interest areas to the JES Focus Issue on Heterogeneous Functional Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage III:
- Batteries and energy storage
- Electrochemical engineering
- Fuel cells, electrolyzers, and energy conversion
- Physical and analytical electrochemistry, electrocatalysis, and photoelectrochemistry
Follow this link for more on scope and topical interest areas: ECS Topical Interest Areas.
Additional requirements
- Graphical abstracts are mandatory for submissions to the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES). All graphical abstract files accompanying the submission must be in a JPEG, JPG, PNG, or TIF format, with the text “GA” as the prefix of the filename, e.g., “GA[filename].jpg”. Upload all graphical abstract files separately as source files. Select “source file” from the drop-down list when uploading files. Do not embed graphical abstracts in manuscript source files or as supplementary files or information.
- All authors listed on a manuscript submission (including the submitting/corresponding author and all coauthors) are required to have a valid ECS Scholar One Manuscripts submission site account with a linked and valid ORCID iD.
Accepting submissions: June 1, 2026 | Submission deadline: September 30, 2026
Read papers from the completed Focus Issue on Heterogeneous Functional Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage and the Focus Issue on Heterogeneous Functional Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage II.
Guest Editors
Wilson Chiu, University of Connecticut, US | wchiu@engr.uconn.edu
Fanglin (Frank) Chen, University of South Carolina, US | chenfa@cec.sc.edu
Deryn Chu, Army Research Laboratory, US | deryn.d.chu.civ@mail.mil
Torsten Markus, Technische Hochschule Mannheim, Germany | t.markus@hs-mannheim.de
Vito Di Noto, Università di Padova, Italy | vito.dinoto@unipd.it
Srikanth Gopalan, Boston University, US | sgopalan@bu.edu
Andrew Herring, Colorado School of Mines, US | aherring@mines.edu
Alice H. Suroviec, Berry College, US | asuroviec@berry.edu
Steven DeCaluwe, Colorado School of Mines, US | decaluwe@mines.edu
Nian Liu, Georgia Institute of Technology, US | nian.liu@chbe.gatech.edu
Jian Xie, Purdue University, US | jxie@purdue.edu
Technical Editors
Doron Aurbach, Bar-Ilan University, Israel | Doron.Aurbach@biu.ac.il
Paul Kenis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US | paul.kenis@electrochem.org
Minhua Shao, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology New Territories, Hong Kong | kemshao@ust.hk
Andrew Hillier, Iowa State University, US | hillier@iastate.edu
Editor-in-Chief
David E. Cliffel, Vanderbilt University, US | paeepeditor@vanderbilt.edu
Articles are published in a standard issue of the journal as they are accepted. If selected at submission, accepted papers are published online in the ECS Digital Library on IOPscience within 24 hours of scheduling for publication. The version of record is published online within approximately 10 days of final acceptance.
Visit the ECS website for author submission instructions and requirements for each article type.
OPEN ACCESS To take advantage of an article credit, the submitting/corresponding author must be from an ECS Plus-affiliated institution or Institutional member or be an ECS member in good standing. The APC applied to an article is determined based on the year of publication, not the date of submission, revision, or acceptance.