Silicon-based Bioactive Materials and their Applications

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is dedicated to the most recent research in the field of silicon-based materials with bioactive properties. Indeed, silicon-based materials are widely known, especially for their application in the fields of microelectronics, photonics, photovoltaic and sensing. However, they are also of great interest for their application in the biomedical field, thanks to their capability to interact with biological systems, such as tissues, cells and bacteria. As an example, silicon-oxide thin film coatings have shown the ability to reduce the adhesion of some types of bacteria on the surface of medical prostheses, to reduce the cytotoxicity of some materials and to act as barriers against the diffusion of metal ions from implant surfaces. Moreover, the addition of silicon to hydroxyapatite has been shown to improve its biological activity considerably. Also, nanostructured silicon-based surfaces have been shown to be capable of a wide range of bioactive actions.

The presence of an interaction between silicon and biological systems has been widely described in the scientific literature. As an example, while silicon is normally present in the human body in small traces only, its dietary intake has been shown to be necessary for a normal growth in both humans and animals. Moreover, silicon-containing surfaces in contact with bone tissues have shown interesting bioactive actions, such as the improvement of osteoblast differentiation. However, the mechanisms of interaction between silicon and biological systems are still not clear and are currently under study by the scientific community.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences is intended to cover original research articles, as well as critical reviews, concerning the most recent advances in the study of the interaction between silicon-based materials and biological systems. Both fundamental studies and research aimed at studying advanced applications of these materials are of interest.

In particular, topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Silicon-based thin-film coatings with bioactive properties and their applications
• Silicon-based bulk materials with bioactive properties and their applications
• Silicon-implanted surfaces with bioactive properties and their applications
• Nanostructured silicon-based surfaces with bioactive properties and their applications

Study of the biological interaction between silicon-containing surfaces and biological systems

Dr. Pietro Mandracci
Guest Editor

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• biomaterials
• silicon-based surfaces
• silicon-based coatings
• silicon implantation
• nanostructured silicon surfaces