Dear Colleagues,

This is an invitation to contribute to a Special Issue of the open-access MDPI journal Polymers, which is dedicated to “Thermal Spraying of Polymers and Polymer Composites".

It is well known that thermal spraying is used in various application fields for the production of protective coatings with a large range of thicknesses. In thermal spraying, the feedstock material which is often manufactured in powder form includes a wide range of materials such as metals, metal alloys, ceramics, composites, and polymers, which can be also used as base material. In thermal spraying, the feedstock material in molten or semi-molten form is projected on a surface, deforms at impact usually in a “pancake”-like structure, overlaps, and solidifies, building up the coating. The deposition is possible due to thermal energy, kinetic energy, or the combination of these energies generated during thermal spraying. 

The advantages of thermally sprayed coatings based on polymers, polymer blends, and polymer composites are related to the low cost, high corrosion resistance, and strength per weight ratio, despite the inherent thermal degradation susceptibility of macromolecular materials. Moreover, through thermal spraying, polymer-based feedstock can be directly processed in powder form, and therefore, the need for solvent is eliminated. Today, for example, many plastics can be completely melted in-flight and allow heat-sensitive base materials to be coated as well.

This Special Issue is mainly concerned with new concepts and techniques related to the thermal spraying of any type of polymer-based feedstock (single or multiple polymer mixtures, polymer blends, composites, and so forth) on metal structures to improve the surface properties and extend the lifetime of industrial parts exposed to corrosive environments.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• New polymers/polymer-based formulations for thermal spraying;
• Deposition of coatings using recycled polymers as feedstock;
• Development in thermal spraying technologies for the deposition of polymers;
• Corrosion-resistant coatings;
• Applications of thermally sprayed polymer coatings;
• Environmentally friendly coatings.

Both research as well as review papers are welcomed.

Dr. Iosif Hulka
Dr. Cătălin Croitoru
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. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.

• thermal spraying
• polymers
• composites
• surface protection
• corrosion-resistant coatings