Metal Surface Coatings for Biomedical Application

Dear Colleagues,

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) dramatically reduce the effectiveness of medicine-based treatments, thus leading to the increased resistance of bacteria towards medicines and their spreading over patients. Despite hand washing campaigns and routine cleaning, infection rates remain unacceptably high, and much needs to be done to lower the risk of acquiring an infection and improve patient safety. Some studies provide estimates of the number of HAIs annually observed in the US: statistics differ from one study to another, but approximately 2 million patients suffer from HAIs, and nearly 90,000 are estimated to die as a result. In the UK, 300,000 people acquire infections in hospitals each year, resulting in nearly 5,000 deaths. In addition to immeasurable personal costs, the Office for National Statistics estimates the direct cost of HAIs to be £1 billion per year in UK and at least $10 billion annually in the US, and in many cases these costs come directly out of the hospital’s budget. Therefore, the ability to control the spread of these microorganisms is critical. In 2050, the projected mortality rate linked to HAIs could reach 10 million annually, which is higher than the projected rate for cancer.

For over a decade now, scientists have been trying to find a way to battle hospital-acquired infections, and new strategies have been developed to combat these nosocomial diseases. In order to minimize or prevent this risk altogether, surfaces (surgical/food trays, stainless steel substrates) are covered with antimicrobial films that either kill (active biocide coatings) or avoid the growth of micro-organisms (passive coatings) like bacteria, fungi, or viruses. Scientists have therefore developed release-based coatings, which are used as reservoirs of antibacterial agents (natural biocides agents like essential oils or metal/metal oxide nanoparticles); nature-inspired coatings have also been reported to mimic fauna-based surfaces, which clearly act as biocide or antifouling coatings. The use of cationic polymers (such as chitosan, polyethyleneimine, poly(L-lysine), polyamidoamine, or poly(vinylpyridinium)) has been investigated because of their higher stability and longer lifetime, and recently a new generation of photosensitizer-based coatings has been engineered to limit the spread of infections caused by pathogens on surface under light exposure.

This Special Issue is dedicated to original and review papers of the highest quality on the design of new antimicrobial polymer coatings on medical materials surfaces and other substrates of interest to significantly limit the growth of bacteria or to achieve biocidal surface properties. The Special Issue welcomes papers on (but not limited to) antifouling thin films, biocide coatings, nanostructured antimicrobial materials, photosentizers-based antimicrobial coatings, polymers-based antimicrobial coatings, metallic-based antimicrobial coatings, bio-based antimicrobial food packaging coatings, fluorinated-based antimicrobial coatings, polysiloxane thin films, clay-based antimicrobial coatings, biomedical applications, and antibacterial surface analysis techniques.

We anticipate this Special Issue will provide current innovative issues in microbiology and polymer surface science and technology, and will be of interest to experts, engineers, students, and new comers in the field

Dr. Davy-Louis Versace
Dr. Mohamed M. Chehimi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Surfaces is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1600 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.

• antifouling thin films, biocide coatings,
• nanostructured antimicrobial materials,
• photosentizers-based antimicrobial coatings,
• polymers-based antimicrobial coatings,
• metallic-based antimicrobial coatings,
• bio-based antimicrobial food packaging coatings,
• fluorinated-based antimicrobial coatings,
• polysiloxane thin films, clay-based antimicrobial coatings,
• biomedical applications
• antibacterial surface analysis techniques