Advances in 3D Printing for Functional Coatings and Materials
A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 1433
Special Issue Editors
Interests: additive manufacturing; chemical engineering; materials engineering; flow chemistry; process intensification; sensor coatings
Interests: additive manufacturing; polymers; polymer composites; chemical engineering; surface properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Three-dimensional printing has evolved into a powerful platform for fabricating advanced materials and surfaces with finely tuned functionalities. As additive manufacturing continues to expand beyond structural applications, its role in producing functional coatings—whether protective, catalytic, sensing, optical, or bioactive—has become increasingly significant. These developments are reshaping surface engineering, enabling precise control over composition, texture, and architecture in ways unattainable through traditional technologies. Given the growing need for high-performance and application-specific surfaces, the intersection of 3D printing and functional coatings represents a rapidly advancing and highly relevant research area.
This Special Issue, titled “Advances in 3D Printing for Functional Coatings and Materials”, aims to showcase recent progress in material formulation, processing strategies, and structure–property relationships relevant to additive manufacturing within the field of coatings. This topic aligns well with the scope of Coatings, which focuses on the science and technology of surface modification, thin films, and advanced coating methods. This Special Issue seeks to gather high-quality contributions, forming a coherent collection that may also qualify for publication in book form.
The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Coatings produced via 3D printing, including protective, catalytic, sensing, hydrophobic, optical, or biomedical surfaces;
- Coatings applied to 3D-printed objects, such as thin films, sol–gel layers, spray coatings, catalytic coatings, electrochemical coatings, polymer coatings, and plasma-deposited layers;
- Material development for additive manufacturing: polymers, ceramics, metals, composites, and hybrids;
- Multimaterial printing and gradient structures enabling surface functionality;
- Micro- and nano-structured surfaces created through printing or post-processing;
- Process optimization, modeling, simulation, monitoring, and design;
- Post-processing treatments, adhesion enhancement, and interface engineering for coated 3D-printed parts.
Application-driven studies in microfluidics, energy, environmental technologies, electronics, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing are encouraged. Suggested article types include original research papers, reviews, short communications, technical reports, and perspectives that highlight new insights into 3D-printed functional coatings and materials.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Marijan Pere Marković
Prof. Dr. Domagoj Vrsaljko
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 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
- 3D printing
- additive manufacturing
- functional coatings
- surface engineering
- thin films
- microstructured surfaces
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