Silica Nanoparticle-Based Materials: Multiscale Modeling, Surface Engineering, and Functional Composites

Silica nanoparticles have emerged as a versatile platform for designing advanced materials across mechanical, biomedical, and energy applications. Owing to their accessibility, surface chemistry, and mechanical stability, silica nanoparticles serve not only as passive fillers but also as active interfacial components that govern the structural and dynamic properties of functional material systems, making the materials an important building block across polymers, ceramics, coatings, and bio-interfaces. Despite extensive progress in synthesis and functionalization, critical challenges remain in establishing quantitative links between nanoparticle architecture, interfacial chemistry, hierarchical organization, and macroscopic properties. In particular, understanding how surface engineering, particle assembly, and multiscale interactions collectively influence mechanical behavior, transport phenomena, and functional responses is essential for predictive material design.Recent advances in multiscale modeling, advanced techniques of surface modification and characterization provide new opportunities for the rational design of next-generation functional materials based on silica nanoparticles. In particular, the integration of multiscale modeling and surface engineering is the crucial to accelerating materials development and enabling predictive design of material properties. This Research Topic aims to advance current understanding of silica nanoparticle-based functional materials across mechanical, biomedical, and energy applications. Emphasis is placed on establishing quantitative structure-property relationships, where nanoparticle architecture, surface functionalization, and interfacial regulation govern macroscopic material performance. Specially, contributions that leverage advanced multiscale modeling techniques to understand, quantify, and guide the surface engineering of silica nanoparticles are encouraged. Experimental studies that provide fundamental insights into synthesis, characterization, interfacial phenomena, and functional performance are equally welcome.This Research Topic will cover themes related to functional materials that are based on silica nanoparticles including, but not limited to:• Synthesis, modification, and characterization of the silica nanoparticle-based materials;• Processing, tuning, and regulating the structure and property of the silica nanoparticle-based materials via physical method;• Mechanical, biomedical, and energy applications of the silica nanoparticle-based materials;• Multiscale simulations that bridge different temporal and spatial scales for understanding the micro- and macroscopic properties of the silica nanoparticle-based materials;• Development of advanced simulation methods that model the structure, reaction, and relaxation for surface modification. Topic editors: Weikang Xian, Memon Hafeezullah, Mehdi Derradji Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79906/silica-nanoparticle-based-materials-multiscale-modeling-surface-engineering-and-functional-composites