An international journal devoted to the science and application of advanced surface treatments for improvement of material properties

Surface and Coatings Technology is an international archival journal publishing scientific papers on significant developments in surface and interface engineering to modify and improve the surface properties of materials for protection in demanding contact conditions or aggressive environments, or for enhanced functional performance. Contributions range from original scientific articles concerned with fundamental and applied aspects of research or direct applications of metallic, inorganic, organic and composite coatings, to invited reviews of current technology in specific areas. Papers submitted to this journal are expected to be in line with the following aspects in processes, and properties/performance:

A. Processes: Physical and chemical vapour deposition techniques, thermal and plasma spraying, surface modification by directed energy techniques such as ion, electron and laser beams, thermo-chemical treatment, wet chemical and electrochemical processes such as plating, sol-gel coating, anodization, plasma electrolytic oxidation, etc., but excluding painting.

B. Properties/performance: friction performance, wear resistance (e.g., abrasion, erosion, fretting, etc), corrosion and oxidation resistance, thermal protection, diffusion resistance, hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, and properties relevant to smart materials behaviour and enhanced multifunctional performance for environmental, energy and medical applications, but excluding device aspects.

Articles must go beyond the technical recipe format and gain substantial new understanding and insight based on detailed characterization of coatings and processes. Experimental papers should provide complete information on the process parameters and an appropriate microstructural characterization. Also, papers which include test data should provide full details of the test equipment and parameters. Such papers should report on the synthesis-characterization-properties-performance relationships.

Manuscripts must be written in good English and contain a balanced and up-to-date reference list formatted according to the guide-for-authors.