Non-Releasing Surfaces and Thin-Films with Antibacterial Properties
A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2020) | Viewed by 10908
Special Issue Editor
Interests: plasma-assisted processes; thin films; coatings; structured materials and surfaces; biomaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The ability to produce surfaces with antibacterial properties is of paramount importance for the fabrication of implants and prostheses, due to the need to prevent the onset of infections. A common approach used to achieve this task is to release some kind of antibacterial agent, such as silver ions or antibiotic molecules, from a coating deposited on the surface. However, the antibacterial agents released in the human tissues could exert some kind of cytotoxic action, depending on the type of agent and the released quantity. Even if such an effect could not be evident on the short term, it may cumulate over long-term exposition. Moreover, the amount of agent released may not be constant over time, as it is depleted from the surface, which could terminate its action after a certain time.
A different strategy is to tune the physicochemical properties of surfaces in order to make them unsuitable for the adhesion of bacteria. The main advantage of this approach is that the surface does not release any agent to the tissues to which it is in contact, strongly reducing the possibility of cytotoxic actions. Moreover, since the biological action is not exerted by a released agent, there is no depletion from the material, and the action is potentially unlimited in time. However, in order to obtain a considerable reduction of the bacterial adhesion, it may be necessary to tune both the surface morphology, such as roughness, porosity or patterning, and the surface chemical properties. Moreover, different surface characteristics are needed in order to prevent the adhesion of different kinds of pathogens. Indeed, a considerable amount of research is still needed in order to increase the available information on the relationship between bacterial adhesion and surface properties.
This Special Issue of Coatings is intended to cover original research articles, as well as critical reviews, concerning the most recent advances in the study of antibacterial surfaces which do not exert their action by releasing antibacterial agents. Both fundamental studies and applications of these materials are of interest.
In particular, topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Thin films with antibacterial properties;
- Implanted surfaces with antibacterial properties;
- Nanostructured surfaces with antibacterial properties;
- Fundamental studies on the relationship between surface properties and bacterial adhesion.
Prof. Dr. P. Mandracci
Guest Editor
Keywords
- Biomaterials;
- Antibacterial coatings;
- Antibacterial surfaces;
- Non-releasing surfaces
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