Advances in Multifunctional and Self-Responsive Materials—Technologies and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue “Advances in Multifunctional and Self-Responsive Materials—Technologies and Applications” will address the development of intelligent materials, mainly for the transport sector, based on novel concepts like self-sensing, self-deicing, self-curing, self-healing, and self-protection methodologies to increase consumer safety, component life-span, and performance while reducing maintenance and manufacturing costs. In recent decades, the implementation of non-metallic materials in primary structures has been considerably growing to fulfill industrial requirements and ecological policies, which enable the production of environmentally friendly and lightweight composites aimed at the reduction of fuel consumption and air pollution. Due to the above-mentioned advantages, composite materials are experiencing a continuous increase in their utilization thanks to their elevated specific mechanical properties (i.e., properties vs. density), affordable cost, and are obtained mainly through the application of optimized specific processing techniques. Nevertheless, to fully apply composite materials in structures, several drawbacks still need to be overcome. For instance, the lack of a suitable electrical conductivity to better cover several functions such as lightning strike and electromagnetic compatibility issues has to be suitably addressed, as does the safe management of intrinsic or induced defects to ensure structural durability. Furthermore, the improvement of insulation performances (thermal or acoustic) combined to low density, high thermal stability and high mechanical properties of polymeric foams to be applied in sensitive fields (transport as well as building). Many functions can be conferred to composites by the proper use of nanotechnology, for example by embedding graphene-based (or its derivatives) materials, or other functional fillers, with exceptional properties in epoxy resins as well as in other polymeric matrix before or during the manufacturing processes. The present Special Issue is open to original articles and reviews dealing with such subjects, including the design and development of new multifunctional materials; theoretical material models to capture self-responsive functionalities, components, and their technologies; and applications under relevant conditions at the prototype level for aerospace, automotive, building and transport networks.

Dr. Giuseppina Barra
Prof. Massimo Viscardi
Dr. Letizia Verdolotti
Guest Editors

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. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.

• Polymer Composites
• Nanotechnology
• Advanced Functional Materials
• Self-Responsive Materials
• Structural Materials
• Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)