Modern Approaches in Surface Engineering for Sustainable Interfaces

Surface engineering is central to improving the reliability and service life of mechanical systems exposed to demanding operating conditions. By modifying surface and near-surface regions without changing bulk properties, surface engineering can address key failure mechanisms such as friction, wear, corrosion, contact fatigue, oxidation, and thermal degradation. These capabilities are especially important in tribological interfaces, where surface design directly influences efficiency, material loss, lubrication behaviour, and maintenance requirements.Many mechanical components now operate under high loads, variable temperatures, corrosive media, and complex contact conditions. Under these environments, surfaces are often the first regions to fail, limiting system performance and increasing downtime, replacement frequency, and resource consumption. Persistent challenges include coating adhesion and durability, residual stress management, tribo-corrosion, surface integrity under cyclic loading, compatibility with lubricants and counterfaces, and the need for lower-impact processing routes. Addressing these issues requires surface engineering approaches that combine strong tribological performance with process control, functional stability, and environmental responsibility.This Research Topic focuses on recent progress in surface modification and interface design for mechanical systems, with particular interest in studies that link processing, microstructure, properties, and performance. Topics include, but are not limited to:o surface modification methods such as PVD and CVD coatings, thermal spraying, laser surface processing, plasma and ion-based treatments, thermochemical treatments, and additive manufacturing-enabled surface design;o friction, wear, lubrication, tribo-corrosion, and contact-fatigue mechanisms in engineered surfaces and interfaces;o nanostructured, multilayer, adaptive, and multifunctional coatings;o bio-inspired surfaces, textured interfaces, and functionally graded materials;o microstructural evolution, phase transformations, diffusion phenomena, residual stresses, and other metallurgical aspects of surface and near-surface engineering;o advanced characterization methods, including in-situ and operando techniques for tracking surface degradation and interface evolution;o modeling and simulation of surface behaviour across scales, from microstructural response to component-level tribological performance;o data-driven materials development, machine learning, and AI-assisted approaches for coating design, process optimization, and performance prediction;o industrial implementation, durability assessment, and lower-impact processing strategies for surface-engineered systems.We welcome Original Research Articles, Review Articles, Mini Reviews, and Perspective papers that provide mechanistic insight, methodological innovation, and application-oriented advances in surface and interface engineering for mechanical systems. Topic editors: Deepak Kumar, Dr Ajay Pratap Singh Lodhi, Virendra Pratap Singh, Himanshu Rai Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78642/modern-approaches-in-surface-engineering-for-sustainable-interfaces