Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to submit a paper to this Special Issue on "Polycrystalline Coatings". Improvements in the functional properties of many products are very-often related to the formation of an appropriate structure and the properties of the surface layers of engineering and biomedical materials. The surface structure is one of the important factors at a time when clear expectations exist for delivering engineering materials on demand. The conditions of exploitation are the critical determinants of such materials, not their mass or price. In many cases, the surface, topcoats or coatings are the carriers of the demanded properties of engineering materials, and such properties determine their market value. For this reason, surface treatment technologies serving this purpose are also of interest. In this case, their structures and the resulting excellent properties of the products manufactured using these materials.

In a large number of cases, we are dealing with the crystalline structure of surface layers and applied coatings, and these issues are of interest from this Special Issue. The range of interests includes both surface layers created by diffusion saturation with atoms of various elements, e.g., an interstitial crystalline matrix of metal materials with a crystalline structure in the processes of traditional thermo-chemical treatment. Of particular interest are single-, multi-layer and gradient coatings through nucleation and crystallization. The Special Issue also applies to epitaxial layers, as well as amorphous layers, which can crystalize under exploitation conditions, including nanocrystallization. Additionally of interest are the technological methods for producing such coatings and the research methods confirming crystalline structure, including high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) research and crystallographic relationships between substrates and coatings. The interactions between the surface of a substrate and the coating and between the individual layers of the coatings and top layers are also of interest, including diffusion and adhesive interactions, as well as the structure and properties of intermediate layers, even if some of them have an amorphous structure.

In particular, the topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Structure and properties of surface coatings with a crystalline structure;
• Technologies for the production of surface coatings with a crystalline structure;
• A specific research methodology applied to surface coatings with a crystalline structure;
• Interactions between the surface of the substrate and the coating and between individual layers of coatings with a crystalline structure.

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.