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State of the Art of Materials Science and Engineering in Italy

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2025 | Viewed by 4932

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesco Baino

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Guest Editor

Institute of Materials Physics and Engineering, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Turin, Italy
Interests: ceramics; glasses; porous materials; additive manufacturing; bioactive glasses; bioceramics; composites; tissue engineering; multifunctional biomaterials; biomedical scaffolds; advanced ceramics; sustainable materials; waste management
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Prof. Dr. Ilaria Cacciotti

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Guest Editor

Department of Engineering, INSTM RU, University of Rome “Niccolò Cusano”, Via Don Carlo Gnocchi 3, 00166 Roma, Italy
Interests: biomaterials; bioceramics; biopolymers; biocomposites; ecosustainable materials; scaffold; spheres; fibers; coatings; sol–gel processes; valorization of agro-food waste extracts and by-products; electrospinning; additive manufacturing; physicochemical characterization; microstructure; thermal and mechanical properties; tissue engineering/regenerative medicine; drug delivery
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Prof. Dr. Corrado Sciancalepore

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze, 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
2. Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM), Via Giuseppe Giusti 9, 50121 Florence, Italy
Interests: polymers; polymer blends; biopolymers; biocomposites; micro- and nano-composites; natural and synthetic fillers; packaging materials; 3D scaffold for biomedical applications; polymer additive manufacturing

Dr. Bahareh Azimi

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Interests: electrospinning; electrospray; solution spinning; biomaterials; biopolymers; piezoelectric materials; tissue engineering; drug delivery, wound dreesing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Materials Science and Engineering in Italy represents a long-lasting and interdisciplinary field in which chemistry, physics, and engineering mix together to produce studies which are considered among the best in the world. This can be attributed to several factors including the excellence of Italian academic and industrial research, as well as to the outstanding capacity of Italian companies to turn innovation into valuable products. Several research groups coming from very different fields often collaborate in the design of materials, components, as well as the development of the processing technology to obtain innovative products with outstanding, new, and smart properties. Examples of the contributions of Italian research in the field are spread out in the top Journals and Conferences throughout the world.

This Special Issue aims at collecting an overview of Materials Science and Engineering in Italy. Research topics include but are not limited to:

Composites and nanocomposites;
Biomaterials;
Carbon-based materials;
Thin film and coatings;
Electronic materials and energy materials;
Porous materials;
Catalytic materials;
Construcation and building materials
Green materials;
Soft matter;
Functional ceramics and glasses;
Materials with special properties and smart materials;
Advanced characterization of materials;
New and innovative material processes;
Modeling of material processing;
Materials in Additive Manufacturing;
Process–properties relationships.

The only condition for submitting a contribution to this Special Issue is that the main part of the study has to have been carried out in Italy or by Italian researchers.

We do hope that this Special Issue can portray the state of Materials Science and Engineering in Italy and give the rest of the world a bright image of what is carried out in the field in our country.

Dr. Francesco Baino
Prof. Dr. Ilaria Cacciotti
Prof. Dr. Corrado Sciancalepore
Dr. Bahareh Azimi
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. Materials 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 2600 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.

Keywords

composites and nanocomposites
biomaterials
thin film and coatings
electronic materials and energy materials
porous materials
catalytic materials
construcation and building materials
green materials
soft matter
functional ceramics and glasses
materials with special properties and smart materials
advanced characterization of materials
new and innovative material processes
modeling of material processing
materials in additive manufacturing
process–properties relationships

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Research

14 pages, 7530 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cold Consolidation of Pharmaceutical Waste Glass Powders Through Alkali Activation and Binder Jet 3D Printing

by Hamada Elsayed, Filippo Gobbin, Alberto Barci, Enrico Bernardo and Paolo Colombo

Materials 2024, 17(21), 5164; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17215164 - 23 Oct 2024

Viewed by 555

Abstract

The recent COVID-19 emergency has led to an impressive increase in the production of pharmaceutical vials. This has led to a parallel increase in the amounts of waste glass; manufacturers typically recover material from faulty containers by crushing, giving origin to an unrecyclable fraction. Coarse fragments are effectively reused as feedstock for glass melting; on the contrary, fine powders (<100 microns), contaminated by metal and ceramic particles due to the same crushing operations, are landfilled. Landfilling is also suggested for pharmaceutical containers after medical use. This study aims at proposing new opportunities for the recycling of fine glass particles, according to recent findings concerning alkali activation of pharmaceutical glass, combined with novel processing, i.e., binder jetting printing. It has already been shown that pharmaceutical glass, immersed in low-molarity alkaline solution (not exceeding 2.5 M NaOH), undergoes surface dissolution and hydration; cold consolidation is later achieved, upon drying at 40–60 °C, by a condensation reaction occurring at hydrated layers of adjacent particles. Binder jetting printing does not realize a full liquid immersion of the glass powders, as the attacking solution is selectively sprayed on a powder bed. Here, we discuss the tuning of key parameters, such as the molarity of the attacking solution (from 2.5 to 10 M) and the granulometry of the waste glass, to obtain stable printed blocks. In particular, the stability depends on the formation of bridges between adjacent particles consisting of strong T-O bonds (Si-O-Si, Al-O-Si, B-O-Si), while degradation products (concentrating Na ions) remain as a secondary phase, solubilized by immersion in boiling water. Such stability is achieved by operating at 5 M NaOH. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art of Materials Science and Engineering in Italy)

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26 pages, 4384 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characterization and Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Properties of Ag- and TiO_x-Based (x = 2, 3) Composite Nanomaterials under UV Irradiation

by Nicola Morante, Veronica Folliero, Federica Dell’Annunziata, Nicoletta Capuano, Antonietta Mancuso, Katia Monzillo, Massimiliano Galdiero, Diana Sannino and Gianluigi Franci

Materials 2024, 17(10), 2178; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17102178 - 7 May 2024

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 956

Abstract

Metal and metal oxide nanostructured materials have been chemically and physically characterized and tested concerning methylene blue (MB) photoremoval and UV antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. In detail, silver nanoparticles and commercial BaTiO₃ nanoparticles were modified to obtain nanocomposites through sonicated sol–gel TiO₂ synthesis and the photodeposition of Ag nanoparticles, respectively. The characterization results of pristine nanomaterials and synthetized photocatalysts revealed significant differences in specific surface area (SSA), the presence of impurities in commercial Ag nanoparticles, an anatase phase with brookite traces for TiO₂-based nanomaterials, and a mixed cubic–tetragonal phase for BaTiO₃. Silver nanoparticles exhibited superior antibacterial activity at different dosages; however, they were inactive in the photoremoval of the dye. The silver–TiO_x nanocomposite demonstrated an activity in the UV photodegradation of MB and UV inhibition of bacterial growth. Specifically, TiO₂/AgNP (30–50 nm) reduced growth by 487.5 and 1.1 × 10³ times for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively, at a dose of 500 μg/mL under UV irradiation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art of Materials Science and Engineering in Italy)

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14 pages, 3685 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Probing the Magnetic Ground State of Ba₂YIrO₆: Impact of Nonmagnetic Dopants and Spin–Orbit Coupling

by Shuvajit Halder, Md Salman Khan, Fabrice Bert, Payel Aich, Carlo Meneghini and Sugata Ray

Materials 2024, 17(8), 1766; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17081766 - 11 Apr 2024

Viewed by 1146

Abstract

Strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in iridates has long been predicted to lead to exotic electronic and magnetic ground states.

{Ba}_{2}

YIr

O_{6}

(BYIO) has attracted particular attention due to the expectation of a

J_{eff}

= 0 state for [...] Read more.

Strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in iridates has long been predicted to lead to exotic electronic and magnetic ground states.

{Ba}_{2}

YIr

O_{6}

(BYIO) has attracted particular attention due to the expectation of a

J_{eff}

= 0 state for

{Ir}^{5 +}

ions under the

j j

-coupling scheme. However, controversies surround the actual realization of this state, as finite magnetic moments are consistently observed experimentally. We present a multi-physics study of this system by progressively introducing nonmagnetic

{Sb}^{5 +}

ions in place of

{Ir}^{5 +}

(

{Ba}_{2}

YIr

​_{1 - y}

​_{y}

​_{6}

, BYISO). Despite similar charge and ionic radii, Sb

​^{5 +}

doping appears highly inhomogeneous, coexisting with a fraction of nearly pure BYIO regions, as confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). This aligns with observations in related compounds. While inhomogeneity creates uncertainty, the doped majority phases offer valuable insights. It is relevant that the inclusion of even small amounts of Sb

​^{5 +}

(10–20%) leads to a rise in magnetization. This strengthens our previous suggestion that magnetic Ir ions form dynamic singlets in BYIO, resulting in a near-nonmagnetic background. The observed moment enhancement with nonmagnetic doping supports the breakdown of these singlets. Furthermore, the magnetization steadily increases with an increasing Sb

​^{5 +}

content, contradicting the anticipated approach towards the

J_{eff}

= 0 state with increased SOC due to reduced hopping between Ir

​^{5 +}

ions. This reinforces the presence of individual Ir

​^{5 +}

moments. Overall, our findings suggest that Ba

​_{2}

YIrO

​_{6}

might not possess sufficiently strong SOC to be solely described within the

j j

-coupling picture, paving the way for further investigation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art of Materials Science and Engineering in Italy)

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14 pages, 7682 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study of the Corrosion Behavior of Stainless Steel in Food Industry

by Stefano Rossi, Sergio Maria Leso and Massimo Calovi

Materials 2024, 17(7), 1617; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17071617 - 1 Apr 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1674

Abstract

AISI 304L stainless steel is widely used in the processing equipment and food and beverage handling industries due to its corrosion resistance, hygienic properties, and cost-effectiveness. However, it is prone to pitting and crevice corrosion phenomena, the development of which can be influenced by factors such as chloride concentration, temperature, humidity, and bacterial presence. Surface treatments, including roughness levels and residual tensile stress, can significantly affect the corrosion behavior and resistance of the material. This study aims to evaluate the impact of three different surface treatments on the durability of AISI 304L steel. The correlation between surface roughness resulting from pre-treatment and pitting potential values will be examined. Additionally, the influence of different concentrations of biocide additives on surface durability will be assessed to determine the maximum effective concentration for preventing pitting phenomena. Passivation processes will also be evaluated as a potential solution for improving the pitting potential and overall durability of the components. By optimizing surface treatments and biocide concentrations, improved corrosion resistance and durability can be achieved, ensuring the long-term performance and reliability of AISI 304L steel components in critical applications such as food processing and beverage handling. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art of Materials Science and Engineering in Italy)

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