Functional Ceramic Coatings

Abstract

Modern materials engineering, just like other areas of today’s science and technology, requires a comprehensive and balanced approach that takes into account all factors that affect not only the design and functional properties of materials, but also their economic profitability and rational management of the available resources. A reflection of this trend is the continuous improvement of the performance, functionality and versatility of engineering designs, which entails the need for new and/or precisely tailored materials. In many cases, the surface properties of materials or devices are crucial for their application and operation. Therefore, it is advisable to apply the methods of surface engineering, leading to modifications in the structure and properties of the surface layers of materials, or deposition of coatings on their surface. The advantage of the latter solution is, above all, the possibility of wider use of advanced materials with unique functional properties, which, for various reasons, cannot or should not be used as the bulk. Particularly interesting in this case is the group of ceramic materials, which in form of the coatings can significantly improve the functionality and applications of classic engineering materials, such as metals (and their alloys) or polymers. Ceramics is an important group of coating materials because of its wide range of controllable features, such as mechanical strength and hardness, corrosion resistance, electrical conductivity, surface properties (surface energy, catalytic behavior, biocompatibility), optical properties, etc. Using these features, it is possible to create tailored substrate-coating systems. From this point of view, it is crucial to understand the relationships between the structures, morphology and the properties of ceramics in the form of coatings.