Pure and Applied Chemistry

Abstract: The widespread use of vacuum-based techniques for the deposition of ceramic coatings with specific electric, magnetic, optical, and mechanical properties is well established in the research environment, and some of them have been implemented in a variety of industrial processes. However, obtaining uninterrupted deposition at high speed, increasing flexibility in composition and in film thickness, and attaining independence of geometric constraints are areas in which many vacuum techniques will need sustained development in order to answer industrial demands. The development of the next generation of deposition methods, which could alleviate some of these shortcomings and which are based on deposition under atmospheric environment and from aqueous precursor materials, is a real challenge for the community of solid-state chemists and delineates the subject of this overview.