Dear Colleagues,

It is of great importance to modify the surface of materials for generating or enhancing their functional properties, including physical, chemical, electrical, electronic, magnetic, and biomedical properties. Surface modifications are carried out through different methods in order to change or endow the surface charateristics of treated materials, such as hydrophilicity, surface charge, surface energy, biocompatibility, and catalytic reactivity. Additionally, almost all types of materials, including metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites, can be coated on similar or dissimilar materials.

In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in surface modification techniques, from age-old electroplating and hot dipping to processes such as vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, molecule self-assembly, energetic beam treatments, etc. Despite the large scientific progress in the surface engineering of a wide range of industrial materials, there are still some bottlenecks that need to be overcome so that these materials will be available for real-life applications. For example, surface functional groups on two-dimensional eletronic materials are extremely importrant for altering the electronic properties (e.g., MXenes, graphene), and thus, exhibit surface group-dependent superconductivity, etc. Surface properties are also important criteria for hydrogen storage materials and eletrode materials, particularly Mg-based materials due to their strong hygroscopic nature making the surface inactive for hydrogen adsorption/absorption.

The scope of this Special Issue will serve as a forum for papers on direct surface modifications and coatings in the following domains:

• Functional thin-film coatings;
• Surface decoration of nanoparticles;
• Two-dimensional materials;
• Surface-modified hydrogen storage materials;
• Electrode materials for batteries;
• Surface group-dependent energy storage materials;
• Functionally graded materials for energy storage;
• Surface treatment of materials by energetic beams for energy applications.

Prof. Kemin Zhang
Prof. Dr. Thierry Grosdidier
Prof. Dr. Jianxin Zou
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.

• surface modifications
• surface engineering
• surface functionalization
• energy storage and conversion
• functional thin-film coating
• surface treatment for energy materials
• energy harvesting