Self-Lubricating Polymer Composites for Wear and Friction Applications

Dear Colleagues,

As a consequence of the innovations in technology that have emerged in recent years, many components traditionally manufactured by metals have been replaced by polymeric composite materials, achieving enhanced benefits such as lower maintenance costs and component weight, higher design freedom, and faster manufacturing processes. As high technology is constantly evolving, the research demand for high-performance polymer-based composites is increasing every day, strongly driven by increased comprehensive material property specifications such as self-lubrication and wear resistance.

The literature study of wear in polymer composites is receiving more and more attention due to the widening selection of materials, ease of processing, high strength, low weight, and excellent tribological performance, which is also leading to an incentive for the industrial application of polymer composites. This Special Issue presents an opportunity for researchers to discuss recent advances in polymer composites and to share their latest results, reviews, and methodologies on the tribology of self-lubricating and composite coatings.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following concepts:

• Experimental or state-of-the-art on new bulk or coating polymer composites produced by different methods.
• High-performance materials for high temperatures, high stress, and other extreme environmental applications.
• Understanding the wear mechanisms of polymeric composite materials through friction, wear, or other dynamic loading conditions.
• Computer modeling to predict polymeric composite tribological performance.
• Development of new test methods to assess polymeric composite characteristics.

Dr. Gabriele Baiocco
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• polymeric composite
• lubrication
• wear
• tribology