Materials | Highly Cited Papers in 2024 in the “Thin Films and Interfaces” Section
The use of thin film materials with nanometer to micrometer thickness is widespread for technological applications, spanning from electronics through medicine. Thin film materials exhibit a greater number of vastly different structural, chemical, electrical, optical, and mechanical properties compared to their corresponding bulk counterparts due to the choice of substrate or underlying material, the material deposition and fabrication process, and the resulting variations in crystal phase, disorder and defects within poly-/nano-crystalline and amorphous materials, strain, and composition. The very nature of thin films involves the formation of interfaces, including those within the substrate, underlying or overlying layers, and/or the ambient. These interfaces and interfacial regions may exhibit additional variations due to confinement, bonding configurations, chemical composition, exposure to ambient, physical mixing, and the morphology present.
As all of the articles published in our journal are of an open access format, you have free and unlimited access to the full texts. We welcome you to read our most highly cited papers published in 2024, listed below:
1. “Influence of Electrolyte Choice on Zinc Electrodeposition”
by Kranthi Kumar Maniam, Corentin Penot and Shiladitya Paul
Materials 2024, 17(4), 851; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17040851
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/4/851
2. “Thin Conducting Films: Preparation Methods, Optical and Electrical Properties, and Emerging Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities”
by Razia Khan Sharme, Manuel Quijada, Mauricio Terrones and Mukti M. Rana
Materials 2024, 17(18), 4559; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17184559
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/18/4559
3. “Optical and Electrochemical Properties of a Nanostructured ZnO Thin Layer Deposited on a Nanoporous Alumina Structure via Atomic Layer Deposition”
by Ana L. Cuevas, Antonia Dominguez, Javier Zamudio-García, Victor Vega, Ana Silvia González, David Marrero-López, Victor M. Prida and Juana Benavente
Materials 2024, 17(6), 1412; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17061412
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/6/1412
4. “Emerging Non-Noble-Metal Atomic Layer Deposited Copper as Seeds for Electroless Copper Deposition”
by Zihong Gao, Chengli Zhang, Qiang Wang, Guanglong Xu, Guoyou Gan and Hongliang Zhang
Materials 2024, 17(7), 1620; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17071620
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/7/1620
5. “Microstructural Evolution, Hardness and Wear Resistance of WC-Co-Ni Composite Coatings Fabricated by Laser Cladding”
by Gibeom Kim, Yong-Chan Kim, Jae-Eock Cho, Chang-Hee Yim, Deok-Su Yun, Tae-Gyu Lee, Nam-Kyu Park, Rae-Hyung Chung and Dae-Geun Hong
Materials 2024, 17(9), 2116; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17092116
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/9/2116
6. “Molybdenum-Doped ZnO Thin Films Obtained by Spray Pyrolysis”
by Pavlina Bancheva-Koleva, Veselin Zhelev, Plamen Petkov and Tamara Petkova
Materials 2024, 17(9), 2164; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17092164
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/9/2164
7. “Epitaxy of (11–22) AlN Films on a Sputtered Buffer Layer with Different Annealing Temperatures via Hydride Vapour Phase Epitaxy”
by Xuejun Yan, Maosong Sun, Jianli Ji, Zhuokun He, Jicai Zhang and Wenhong Sun
Materials 2024, 17(2), 327; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17020327
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/2/327
8. “Correlation between the Chemical Structure of (Meth)Acrylic Monomers and the Properties of Powder Clear Coatings Based on the Polyacrylate Resins”
by Katarzyna Pojnar and Barbara Pilch-Pitera
Materials 2024, 17(7), 1655; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17071655
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/7/1655
9. “Optical, Electrical, Structural, and Thermo-Mechanical Properties of Undoped and Tungsten-Doped Vanadium Dioxide Thin Films”
by Chuen-Lin Tien, Chun-Yu Chiang, Ching-Chiun Wang and Shih-Chin Lin
Materials 2024, 17(10), 2382; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17102382
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/10/2382
10. “Effects of Direct and Pulse Plating on the Co-Deposition of Sn–Ni/TiO2 Composite Coatings”
by Eleni Rosolymou, Antonis Karantonis and Evangelia A. Pavlatou
Materials 2024, 17(2), 392; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17020392
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/2/392