About Materials and Solidification

Materials and Solidification

Overview and identity

Materials and Solidification is an English-language academic journal dedicated to solidification science and technology, sponsored by Northwestern Polytechnical University and published by Tsinghua University Press in Beijing on the press's SciOpen platform. It appears on the official Tsinghua University Press journal list with the ISSN 3078-7955. The journal operates under a single-blind peer-review model and is fully open access, so every article it publishes is freely available to readers worldwide. It is rooted in the School of Materials Science and Engineering and the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing at Northwestern Polytechnical University, and it adopts what its editors call a "broad materials science" perspective, focusing on fundamental solidification science and frontier technological innovations throughout the entire fabrication process of a material — from the moment a liquid begins to freeze to the behaviour of the finished solid in service.

Launch and inaugural issue

The journal was launched in January 2025 on SciOpen, the international digital publishing platform developed by Tsinghua University Press. Its launch announcements described it as a new international journal for a field that, despite its centrality to manufacturing, had no dedicated title of its kind in China: it was founded by the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing to focus on solidification experiments, theory and applications. The inaugural issue set out the journal's range in practice. It featured six peer-reviewed contributions spanning experimental, numerical and theoretical research, beginning with an inaugural editorial by the editor-in-chief and continuing with studies of the thermal and mechanical properties of porous materials based on triply periodic surfaces, lattice Boltzmann modelling of dendrite growth during ultrasonic-assisted solidification of an IN718 alloy, multi-scale simulation of thermal processes and microstructure evolution in wire arc additive manufacturing of 921A steel, magnetic heat treatment and dynamic precipitation in Fe–Ga magnetostrictive alloys, and lysozyme crystallisation in a transparent silica-coated liquid marble. A second issue, Volume 1, Issue 2, followed in 2025, confirming the journal as an active, regularly publishing title rather than a one-off launch.

Sponsor: Northwestern Polytechnical University and its solidification laboratory

The journal's academic home is Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an, Shaanxi, and specifically its State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing and School of Materials Science and Engineering. That laboratory is one of China's principal research centres for the science of how materials freeze: its researchers work on the theory and control of solidification, the microstructures that form as metals and other materials solidify, and the processing routes — casting, directional solidification, rapid solidification and additive manufacturing among them — that determine a component's final properties. Anchoring the journal in this laboratory gives the title a direct connection to a large, active research community working on exactly its subject. The sponsorship arrangement pairs that Xi'an research base with the international publishing infrastructure of Tsinghua University Press in Beijing, which handles publication through SciOpen. The journal thus combines a specialist academic sponsor with a publisher experienced in running English-language science journals for a global readership.

Editorial leadership

Materials and Solidification is led by Editor-in-Chief Professor Jinshan Li of Northwestern Polytechnical University, with Professor Junjie Wang serving as Executive Editor; both are affiliated with the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing. Professor Li authored the journal's inaugural editorial, published as the first article of Volume 1, in which he set out the case for the title: solidification lies at the heart of modern materials processing, from casting and crystal growth to additive manufacturing and rapid quenching, and understanding and controlling solidification processes are fundamental to designing advanced materials with tailored microstructures and properties. The editorial invited contributions spanning experimental, theoretical and computational studies in metallic, ceramic, polymeric and composite systems — a statement of intent that the contents of the first issue, which ranged from superalloy dendrite modelling to protein crystallisation, promptly illustrated. Editorial leadership drawn from the sponsoring laboratory keeps the journal's direction in the hands of researchers active in the field it serves.

Scope: advanced material systems and high performance

The journal's published scope is organised in five broad areas. The first covers advanced material systems and high performance: the solidification preparation, microstructural evolution, interfacial structure control and service behaviour evaluation of high-performance metals and alloys; advanced ceramics and silicate materials; metal-, ceramic- and polymer-matrix composites; semiconductor and optoelectronic functional materials; low-dimensional and nanomaterials; and biomedical materials. This breadth reflects the journal's founding premise that solidification is a common thread running through very different classes of material. A turbine alloy, a ceramic, a semiconductor crystal and a biomedical implant are all shaped by what happens as they solidify, and the journal deliberately places research on all of them in one venue, so that methods and insights developed for one material family can be read by researchers working on another.

Scope: fundamentals of solidification theory and extreme conditions

The second scope area addresses the fundamentals of solidification theory and research under extreme conditions. It includes the theory of solidification nucleation and crystal growth, interfacial kinetics, the thermodynamics and kinetics of phase transformations, rapid solidification and non-equilibrium mechanisms, and solidification behaviour under extreme conditions such as deep undercooling, ultrahigh pressure and microgravity, together with multiscale theoretical modelling and numerical simulation. Non-equilibrium solidification — where cooling is so fast that the solid that forms departs from equilibrium predictions — is central to modern processes such as additive manufacturing, and it is a recurring theme of the journal's early content, from dendrite growth modelling in a nickel-based superalloy to simulations of wire arc additive manufacturing. By treating theory, modelling and extreme-condition experiments as core territory rather than background, the journal serves the fundamental end of the field as well as its applications.

Scope: advanced technologies and precision manufacturing

The third and fourth scope areas turn to technology and application. They cover precision casting, directional solidification and single-crystal growth of high-performance components; additive manufacturing (3D printing); high-performance welding and joining; solidification processes assisted by external fields such as electric, magnetic and ultrasonic fields; and near-net shape forming and the integrated manufacturing of complex components. The scope gives special attention to liquid precursor impregnation and solidification, melt infiltration and reaction solidification mechanisms in the preparation of fibre-reinforced composites such as carbon/carbon and carbon/silicon carbide. Beyond individual processes, the journal covers solidification laws and service evolution under multi-physics field coupling — thermal, mechanical, electrical and magnetic effects acting together — and the application of advanced solidification technologies in strategic fields including aerospace hot-end components, thermal protection structures for hypersonic vehicles, advanced energy and deep-sea exploration, as well as green manufacturing and full life-cycle management of materials. This is the engineering face of the journal: research aimed at components that must survive the most demanding service environments in modern industry.

Intelligent computation and advanced characterisation

The fifth scope area reflects how solidification research is now done. It covers material composition prediction, microstructure evolution simulation and process design optimisation based on artificial intelligence, machine learning and materials genome engineering; in-situ characterisation, synchrotron radiation and high-resolution analysis techniques for observing solidification processes as they happen; and the application of multi-scale numerical simulation throughout material preparation and service. In-situ observation matters because solidification is fast, occurs at high temperature and is usually hidden inside a mould or a melt pool; techniques that let researchers watch dendrites grow or interfaces move in real time have transformed the field's ability to test its theories. A journal that lists computational prediction and advanced characterisation alongside classical theory and processing signals that it intends to publish the methodological work on which future solidification science will rest, not only its finished results.

Publishing model, access and readership

Materials and Solidification publishes original and innovative research papers and reviews reporting solidification phenomena, cutting-edge theories and engineering applications of metals, inorganic non-metallic materials and composites during preparation, processing and service. All manuscripts undergo single-blind peer review, and the journal is fully open access on SciOpen. As a launch incentive, the journal waived article processing charges for papers submitted by 31 December 2025. Its stated ambition is to build a high-end academic exchange platform for global researchers and engineers, supporting theoretical innovation, technological breakthroughs and the translation of research achievements in advanced materials and solidification science, and it explicitly encourages the multidisciplinary integration of materials science with mechanics, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and extreme-environment science. For readers, its significance is its specialisation: solidification research has traditionally been dispersed across general materials, metallurgy and manufacturing journals, and Materials and Solidification gives it a dedicated international home, published by Tsinghua University Press in Beijing, sponsored by Northwestern Polytechnical University, and identified by ISSN 3078-7955.