Recent Advances in Catalytic Surfaces/Films: Bacterial Inactivation and Biomedical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

The areas to be covered in this Special Issue include innovative surfaces/films leading to bacterial inactivation in the dark and under light. These materials present potential in healthcare applications and environmental disinfection. Stable 2D/3D catalytic surfaces prepared by colloidal methods, sputtering methods, physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and atomic layer deposition (ALD) presenting bacterial kinetics with a characterization of the surface properties responsible for their disinfection behavior make up the focus of this Special Issue.

Pathogen inactivation kinetics has evolved during the last few years, going from semiconductors to doped-metal-semiconductors and, more recently, to oxide/metal surface releasing highly oxidative cations. In this way, innovative materials have contributed to the acceleration of the pathogen destruction.

Films reported during the last few years have increasingly reported a more effective bacterial inactivation kinetics, adherence to the substrate, mechanical resistance to friction, thermal stability, and long-operational lifetime, making this type of research an area of central attention in the biological/biochemical field.

In this Special Issue, we welcome studies on:

a) Work addressing the inactivation of bacteria (Gram+ or Gram-), virus, fungi and algae;

b) Catalytic/photocatalytic materials leading to the inactivation of biological toxic agents in the dark without the need of an external energy source (light, temperature) or activated by different light sources;

c) Work related to the surface of solid 3D-implants leading to disinfection as this area is lately revealing a high application potential;

d) Studies reporting the surface properties responsible for bacterial inactivation properties, such as: Size, shape of the catalytic sites, surface atomic composition, surface hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, surface charge, roughness and identification of the surface, and bacterial functional groups.

Dr. John Kiwi
Dr. Roberto Comparelli
Dr. Irina Levchuk
Dr. Christophe Ruis Espírito Santo
Guest Editors

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• surfaces
• pathogen inactivation
• bacteria
• fungi
• cytotoxicity
• catalysis
• photocatalysis
• film properties
• mechanism
• kinetics
• implants