The 4th TKU–ECUST–OPU–KIST joint Symposium on Advanced Materials and their Applications and the 2nd TKU–OPU International Symposium on Frontier Chemistry and Materials for the twenty-first century were held from September 24th to 27th, 2014, at Tamkang University in the beautiful Tamsui district of New Taipei City in northern Taiwan. The symposium was hosted, in partnership, by Tamkang University (TKU), East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), Osaka Prefecture University (OPU), and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST); more than one hundred participants attended this symposium. The main topics of the symposium were the experimental and theoretical aspects of nanoscience, biological science, and related materials to develop applications. The organizing committee proposed to publish these high-quality papers in a special issue of Research on Chemical Intermediates.

During the last decade, the research in developing new materials has become an extremely interesting research area. The symposium included organic synthesis for theoretical investigation of frontier materials. The information provided could open the door to the design of new materials.

This special issue includes 17 papers, which were presented at the symposium. We would like to thank all of the authors who contributed their recent research results in this special issue of Research on Chemical Intermediates. We also express our deep gratitude to all the reviewers for their effort and expertise in reviewing the manuscripts.