nanomaterials Editorial Nanocomposite Materials: A Section of Nanomaterials Jordi Sort 1,2 1 Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain; jordi.sort@uab.cat; Tel.: +34-935812085 2 Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain “Nanocomposite materials” is one of the main sections of Nanomaterials and it has contributed with more than 440 publications during the last two years to increase the reputation and recognition of the journal by the scientific community. This section focuses on publishing research in the area of multi-component or hybrid materials in which at least one of the constituent counterparts is nanometric in size [1–5]. Such materials take advantage of the simultaneous properties of two or more phases com- prised in the composites. While the individual properties of each phase can provide, on their own, unique functionalities, very often the mutual coupling between the different types of materials offer synergetic interactions that can boost performance of the composites or even trigger new effects, not displayed by each of the constituent phases individually. In this way, nanocomposite materials are the forefront of contemporary physics, chemistry and advanced materials science technologies. The fields of application of nanocomposite materials encompass, but are not limited to, biomedicine (drug delivery, biosensors) [1], electronics and optoelectronics (sensors/actuators, recording media, MEMS/NEMS), en- vironment, energy (supercapacitors, batteries, fuel cells) [3], automotive and aerospace (ultra-hard coatings, radiation shields) or information technologies [4] and the Internet of Things, among others.  Research interest to the section Nanocomposite Materials includes all aspects of the de-  sign, synthesis, characterization, and application of multi-phase or multi-component nano- Citation: Sort, J. Nanocomposite materials. The list of materials covered in this Section includes: protective nanocomposite Materials: A Section of coatings; self-healing nanocomposites; shape memory and shape switching nanocomposite Nanomaterials. Nanomaterials 2022, layers; piezoelectric, magnetocaloric, magnetoelectric, or halochromic nanocomposites; 12, 203. https://doi.org/10.3390/ metamaterials; multifunctional core-shell nanoparticles [4]; organic-inorganic hybrid com- nano12020203 posites; metal-oxide nanocomposites [5]; etc. Any aspect related to the fundamental under- Received: 23 December 2021 standing of the properties of these materials as a function of their nano-sized constituents, Accepted: 5 January 2022 as well as their integration into devices is covered and will be highly recommended for Published: 9 January 2022 publication in the “Nanocomposite Materials” Section of Nanomaterials. Our goal is to offer Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral the readers free-to-read, high-quality papers reporting on the aforementioned cutting-edge with regard to jurisdictional claims in research, aiming at further increasing the impact of the journal in the community. published maps and institutional affil- iations. Funding: Partial financial support from the Spanish Government (PID2020-116844RB-C21 and PDC2021-121276-C31) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017-SGR-292). Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable. Copyright: © 2022 by the author. Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflict of interest. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 203. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12020203 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nanomaterials Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 203 2 of 2 References 1. Thakur, V.K.; Kessler, M.R. Self-healing polymer nanocomposite materials: A review. Polymer 2015, 69, 369–383. [CrossRef] 2. Garcia-Lecina, E.; Garica-Urrutia, I.; Diez, J.A.; Fornell, J.; Pellicer, E.; Sort, J. Codeposition of inorganic fullerene-like WS2 nanoparticles in an electrodeposited nickel matrix under the influence of ultrasonic agitation. Electrochim. Acta 2013, 114, 859–867. [CrossRef] 3. Liang, Y.; Lai, W.-H.; Miao, Z.; Chou, S.-L. Nanocomposite materials for the sodium-ion battery: A review. Small 2018, 14, 1702514. [CrossRef] [PubMed] 4. Salazar-Alvarez, G.; Lidbaum, H.; Lopez-Ortega, A.; Estrader, M.; Leifer, K.; Sort, J.; Suriñach, S.; Baró, M.D.; Nogués, J. Two-, Three-, and Four-Component Magnetic Multilayer Onion Nanoparticles Based on Iron Oxides and Manganese Oxides. J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 16738–16741. [CrossRef] [PubMed] 5. Misra, S.; Wang, H. Review on the growth, properties and applications of self-assembled oxide–metal vertically aligned nanocomposite thin films—Current and future perspectives. Mater. Horiz. 2021, 8, 869–884. [CrossRef] [PubMed]