Functional Coatings for Biosensor Applications
A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Surface Coatings for Biomedicine and Bioengineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 1
Special Issue Editors
2. Department of Mechatronics, Robotics and Digital Manufacturing, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 10105 Vilnius, Lithuania
Interests: electrochemistry; kinetics; biosensors; immunosensors; scanning electrochemical microscopy; microbial biofuel cell; artificial intelligence
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The field of biosensors is changing quickly, driven by innovations in materials science, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Functional coatings include thin films, nanostructures, polymer films, self-assembling layers, composite layers, and bio-nanomaterials that directly impact the sensitivity, selectivity, and stability of biosensors. These engineered interfaces not only protect sensor surfaces but also play a critical role in immobilising biorecognition elements enhancing signal transduction, and could additionally serve as active components of analyte detection.
Nanoscale materials and composites are revolutionising sensor design by bridging the gap between biorecognition elements and transducers, improving sensitivity and selectivity. Nanostructured coatings also enhance signal-to-noise ratios and support sensor miniaturisation. Simultaneously, artificial intelligence analytics promise to transform biosensors into smarter and more autonomous devices for on-sight diagnostics and real-time decision making.
As biosensors have become integral tools in healthcare, environmental monitoring and wearable technologies, the design and optimisation of their surface coatings has emerged as an important research domain. These coatings enable the functionality of the next-generation biosensors, supporting applications ranging from disease diagnostics to pollution tracking and continuous physiological monitoring. By integrating advanced material engineering with intelligent data processing, researchers are building responsive, selective and robust biosensor platforms.
The Special Issue “Functional Coatings for Biosensor Applications” aims to highlight recent developments and integrations of advanced surface coatings that enhance biosensor performance via improved sensitivity, specificity, biocompatibility, or signal stability. As biosensors are incorporated more into healthcare, environmental monitoring and wearable systems, their performance is increasingly dependent on the design of coatings, for signal transduction, biorecognition element immobilisation, antifouling or stability in complex mediums. In parallel, advances in artificial intelligence are providing researchers with the possibility of optimising coating composition, coating deposition and immobilisation parameters, and predicting sensor–analyte interactions. This convergence of smart materials and intelligent systems is shaping a new generation of biosensors.
The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:
- Nanostructured and Thin Film Coatings for Biosensors;
- Conductive Polymer Coatings;
- Surface Functionalization Strategies for Biosensors;
- Affinity Based Biosensor Coatings;
- Metal–Organic Framework for Signal Amplification;
- AI-Optimized Coating Design;
- Wearable Biosensors;
- Self-Powered and Biofuel Cell-Based Biosensors;
- Multifunctional Coatings for Multi-Analyte Detection Systems.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Antanas Zinovicius
Dr. Inga Morkvėnaitė
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
- functional coatings
- biosensors
- artificial intelligence
- nanostructured films
- polymer nanocomposites
- surface functionalization
- wearable sensors
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