Polymers as a Springboard in Material Sciences: From Insulating Protective Coatings to Conducting Smart Films

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue deals with polymers for thin coatings and films. Attention will be equally divided between insulating and conductive polymers, both objects of very lively research fields, where strong multidisciplinarity matches with several promising applications. Listing the employment of polymeric coatings and films would be very hard. On the one hand, there are insulating, waterproof coatings for protection of the underlying substrate, and, on the other hand, there are conductive, high-porous films for sensoristics and energetics. Notwithstanding several possible applications, some issues are still far from being understood and solved, from the working mechanism (e.g., for conductive polymers) to the long-term stability, high synthetic costs, processability on large scale, etc. For these reasons, this Special Issue aims to improve both the fundamental knowledge and the practical applicability of polymeric coatings and films by collecting both original research papers, characterized by a strong push towards innovation, and review articles, able to summarize the available knowledge.

The Special Issue will explore polymeric films/coatings based on novel materials (possibly sustainable and green) and/or be employed in innovative applications (including renewable energy ones, biomedical and sensing devices). A non-exhaustive list of acceptable topics may include the following:

• Polymeric films in devices (photoelectrochemical ones, smart windows, etc.)
• Polymers as chemically active surfaces (e.g., electrocatalysis, photo(electro)catalysis)
• Polymer films in sensors (e.g., electrochemical ones);
• Polymeric coatings for corrosion protection;
• Polymeric coatings in the food industry;
• Smart polymeric coatings (self-healing, superhydrophobic, self-cleaning, fluorescent, etc.);
• Polymer composite films/coatings;
• Molecularly imprinted polymer films;
• Chiral conductive polymers;
• Polymers in spintronics;
• Polymer films in bipolar electrochemistry (e.g., actuators);
• Polymers in medical and biomedical devices

This Special Issue will be a valuable collection of interesting ideas, novel materials, and smart applications that could be helpful for the broad chemistry community working on polymeric coatings and films.

Dr. Mirko Magni
Dr. Serena Arnaboldi
Guest Editors

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