Nanogels are robust nanoparticles that could be used to deliver active drug compounds in controlled drug delivery applications. This review discusses the design, synthesis, loading, and release of local anesthetics using polymeric nanoparticles produced via various types of polymerization techniques. The strategy of using layer-by-layer approach to control the burst release of procaine hydrochloride (PrHy; a local anesthetic drug of the amino ester group) is described and discussed.

Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (ACS SCE) was launched in January 2013, with a scope that included green chemistry, green engineering, and the grand challenges for sustainability in the chemical enterprise. As Editors, we have been honored by the response of the research community to the journal. Submissions and published content have grown by an order of magnitude since our launch, and as our fourth year came to a close, we were approaching 800 published articles per year. These publications are being widely cited, and the journal's impact factor, which currently stands at 5.27, is on an upward trajectory. Given the number and high quality of submissions that ACS SCE is attracting, we chose this editorial venue at the start of our fifth year to comment on the scope and future directions of ACS SCE, providing clarifications based on our collective editorial experience.

Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering seeks to provide authors rapid editorial decisions by quickly identifying manuscripts that are not likely to be of broad interest to the readers of the journal. These manuscripts are returned to authors after careful review by our editorial team, prior to external peer review. Such rapid decision making allows authors to expeditiously find alternative routes for publishing their work. The criteria used by ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering in making these editorial decisions include those used commonly by all scientific journals, such as lack of explanations, mechanisms, or testable hypotheses for observed data; inadequate error and uncertainty analyses; inadequate validation or sensitivity analyses of computational work; failure to summarize how the contribution advances the current state of the field; and a sufficiently inadequate use of language or organization such that the scientific advances of the work can not be adequately assessed. Such criteria have been previously described in editorials by other ACS journals. 1 In making decisions on each manuscript prior to sending for peer review, our editorial team applies three additional criteria, including some that are unique to the field of sustainable chemistry and engineering.

Advisory Board and will lead the engagement of the Board and the research community in expanding the editorial content of the journal beyond our current range of editorials dedicated to journal announcements and descriptions of our scope.With this expanded team, ACS SCE will continue to serve as a forum for our authors and readers working in areas of (i) catalysts for sustainable chemical transformations, (ii) renewable materials, (iii) electrochemistry, photochemistry, and photoelectrochemistry for energy conversion, energy storage, and synthesis of value added chemicals, (iv) benign solvents, (v) biorenewable feedstocks in fuel and chemical manufacturing, (vi) sustainable chemical synthesis, (vii) design of sustainable chemical processes, (viii) industrial ecology and sustainable chemicals management, and (ix) the use of advanced nanomaterials for sustainable chemistry/engineering applications. ACS SCE remains committed to publishing advances at the frontiers of discovery in these areas, but as these research areas are rapidly evolving and advancing, the expectations for manuscripts will also evolve and advance. To help guide authors in understanding these changes, over the course of this year, the journal will publish editorials, authored by our editorial team, describing in more detail our scope and expectations in each of the major areas in which ACS SCE currently publishes research. Look for these editorials in the first issue of the journal each month.

Metrics & MoreArticle Recommendations ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (ACS SCE) reports and promotes innovation and advances in sustainable chemistry and engineering. The disciplines of sustainable chemistry and engineering are rapidly evolving, and consequently, our expectations for manuscripts that will be published in ACS SCE are also evolving. To help guide authors in understanding these changes, this editorial focuses on the scope and expectations for manuscripts reporting advances in the use and processing of lignin, cellulose, chitin, lipids, polysaccharides, and other renewable materials broadly characterized as biomass.The demand for energy and everyday commodities has increased in all regions of the globe. Sales of chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, are projected to exceed US$5 trillion in 2030, double that of 2017. 1 Currently, these items are mostly produced through manufacturing processes utilizing nonrenewable resources, such as crude oil, coal, and natural gas. Global energy supplies are also heavily reliant on nonrenewable resources, and global demand for energy is projected to grow from its current level of approximately 600 quadrillion BTU (quads) per year to 900 quads/yr by 2050. 2 Only a small fraction of this energy use is currently derived from renewable biomass resources. 3 Multiple analyses have indicated that energy and materials use from biomass could be increased significantly, even using only biomass materials that are currently viewed as wastes. Projections of feedstock availability show that up to a billion tons per year of crop residues, herbaceous energy crops and woody crops and wastes, are available in just the United States. 4 Algae systems could add to this feedstock flow, especially if they could be colocated with concentrated CO 2 sources, such as ethanol plants, coal-fired power plants, and natural gas-fired power plants. 4 However, for these feedstock resources to gain acceptance as reliable feedstocks, methods for improving reliability of their quality while minimizing variability must be developed along with robust supply chains.Once sourced, feedstock resources must be pretreated, dissolved, or fractionated, prior to conversion into energy products, chemicals, or materials, preferably with unique functional properties. Fractionation and purification of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, chitin, lipids, and other biomass resources have most often been developed as unit operations integrated into linear production systems; fractionation and purification methodologies with full usage of the renewable feedstock remain scarce. Green processing through use of renewable energy, regenerable green solvents, and catalysts are also needed.

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