Thin Films and Coatings by Sol-Gel Chemistry: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications
A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Surface Characterization, Deposition and Modification".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 26667
Special Issue Editor
Interests: Geopolymers; sol–gel technology; biomaterials; bioglass; organic/inorganic hybrid materials; drug delivery; thin films
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Chemical and physical features of material surfaces are closely related to many material properties, such as hydrophilicity and hydrophobia, wear and corrosion resistance, biological performances (e.g., bioactivity and biocompatibility) and optical properties (e.g., refraction index, reflection, photoluminescence). Therefore, the deposition of functional coatings to modify material surfaces nowadays represents a promising strategy to give new properties to the materials or to modify and/or improve some already existing ones. One of the most feasible technology to produce homogeneous and functional coatings with a wide range of properties is the sol-gel technique. It is a method to synthesize glass and ceramic oxides at low temperature. The process involves the hydrolysis of a metal alkoxide precursor dissolved in a water-alcohol solution, and the polycondensation of the formed oligomers which leads to the transition of the system from a mostly colloidal liquid (‘sol’) into a solid wet ‘gel’. Further processing of the sol and the possibility of coupling the sol-gel process with a coating technique (e.g., dip coating, spin coating or spry coating) make it an interesting approach for the preparation of thin film with potential advantages, such as higher purity and homogeneity of the obtained layers, lower processing temperatures, reduced thickness, easy method of preparation and ability to form coatings over large surfaces and substrates with complex geometric shapes, allowing a good control of the composition and properties of the final layers.
For this reason, the sol-gel coatings are usefully used in a wide area of applications, such as biology and medicine, environment, optics, electronics, energy, catalysts, sensors and functional smart coatings.
It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue.
In particular, the topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Techniques for coating preparation;
- Techniques for the characterization of the chemical coating structure and microstructure;
- Characterization of coating properties (biological performances, mechanical behavior, optical properties, etc.);
- Applications of sol-gel coatings (protective coatings, optical coatings, coatings for biomedical applications, etc.);
- Organic–inorganic hybrid coatings and their applications.
Prof. Michelina Catauro
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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