Photocatalytic Coatings for Environmental Remediation and Energy Applications
A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Surface Engineering for Energy Harvesting, Conversion, and Storage".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2026 | Viewed by 94
Special Issue Editor
Interests: nanomaterials; environmental remediation; photocatalysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue, ‘Photocatalytic Coatings for Environmental Remediation and Energy Applications’, aims to highlight recent advances in the design, fabrication, characterization, and practical use of photocatalytic coating systems. Photocatalytic coatings have emerged as highly promising functional materials due to the fact that they combine surface protection with active chemical performance under light irradiation. Their ability to degrade organic pollutants, remove harmful contaminants, prevent biofouling, and contribute to self-cleaning surfaces renders them especially attractive for environmental remediation. Moreover, these coatings are gaining increasing attention for energy-related uses, including solar-driven hydrogen production, CO2 reduction, and photoelectrochemical processes. The Special Issue welcomes contributions that deepen the understanding of coating composition, interfacial properties, charge transfer behavior, light-harvesting efficiency, and durability under real-world operating conditions.
The scope of this Special Issue covers a wide range of materials and technologies, including semiconductor-based coatings, nanostructured and hybrid systems, doped photocatalytic films, multifunctional surfaces, and scalable deposition or fabrication routes. Particular emphasis is placed on studies that connect material design with performance in practical applications, whether for water treatment, air purification, antimicrobial protection, corrosion mitigation, or sustainable energy conversion. Both fundamental investigations and application-oriented research are encouraged, especially works addressing stability, recyclability, efficiency enhancement, and large-scale implementation. By combining diverse perspectives from materials science, surface engineering, environmental technology, and energy research, this Special Issue seeks to provide a comprehensive platform for the latest progress in photocatalytic coatings.
In particular, the topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Semiconductor photocatalytic coatings for water purification
- Photocatalytic films for air pollutant removal
- Self-cleaning and antifouling photocatalytic surfaces
- Nanostructured coatings for solar energy conversion
- Visible-light-active photocatalytic coating materials
- Photocatalytic coatings for hydrogen generation
- Antimicrobial photocatalytic coatings for healthcare surfaces
- Hybrid and composite photocatalytic thin films
- Scalable fabrication of functional photocatalytic coatings
- Durability and stability of photocatalytic coating systems
Dr. Duong Duc La
Guest Editor
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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.
Keywords
- photocatalytic coatings
- environmental remediation
- energy conversion
- self-cleaning surfaces
- nanostructured films
- visible-light photocatalysis
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