Functional Materials and Coatings for High-Performance Supercapacitors

Dear Colleagues,

Supercapacitor performance is governed by how active chemistries are deposited, structured, and packaged as coatings/films on current collectors. This Special Issue targets the translation of material selection, film architecture, interfacial engineering, and processability in thin/thick coatings into application-relevant metrics such as areal/volumetric capacitance, ESR, adhesion, and durability. Independent of the underlying chemistry, we seek contributions that explicitly connect thickness-dependent ion/electron transport, pore architecture, collector–coating contact, and packaging choices to device-level outcomes in rate/energy efficiency, stability, and safety.

Within this scope, coating materials and architectures include carbon derivatives (graphene, CNTs, porous carbons, expanded graphite), MXenes, transition-metal oxides/nitrides/carbides/sulfides (e.g., MnO₂, Ni/Co-based), LDHs, conducting polymers, and MOF/COF-derived films. These may be implemented as nanolaminates, graded/FGM coatings, hierarchical/3D and binder-free architectures, as well as patterned/interdigitated micro-supercapacitor coatings. Deposition and processing encompass various routes, including vacuum-based methods (ALD, CVD/PVD, sputtering, pulsed deposition) and solution-based approaches (sol–gel, electrodeposition, electrophoretic deposition, electrospinning mats integrated as coatings, spray/inkjet/roll-to-roll/3D printing). Post-treatments (annealing, plasma, laser, chemical activation) are used to tune crystallinity, conductivity, porosity, and adhesion.

Interface and integration topics include current-collector pretreatments, adhesion layers, contact-resistance minimization, corrosion/oxidation barriers, and optimization of thickness and areal loading; for flexible/wearable and solid-state devices, coating-based packaging solutions that provide anti-drying behavior, flame retardancy, and moisture/oxygen barriers are of particular interest. Electrolyte–coating compatibility encompasses aqueous (neutral/alkaline/acidic), organic, ionic liquid, and gel/solid polymer systems, with a focus on interphase formation, wetting, and the stability of coated electrodes across a wide range of temperatures and voltages.

Coatings-focused characterization should include in situ/operando probing of redox/EDL processes within films, as well as cross-sectional/3D morphology (FIB-SEM, XCT), nanoscale conductivity/ionic mapping, stress–adhesion testing, cyclic bending/fatigue testing, and temperature/aging studies. Uniform reporting of areal/volumetric metrics at stated film thickness and areal loading is expected. Modeling and data-centric studies may address multiphysics through-thickness transport, DFT/MD of interfacial processes, AI/ML for process–structure–property relationships, DOE-based process optimization, and LCA/recyclability of coating routes and precursors.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Fatih Erdemir
Dr. Onur Güler
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. 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.