Tough self-cleaning coating sticks it to stains

By Matthew Gunther2015-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

No comments

Superhydrophobic ‘paint’ can be sprayed or dip-coated onto cotton, glass and metal and survives sandpaper abrasion

<cite>Science/AAAS</cite>The coating can be easily applied to many different materials to make them superhydrophobic</div>With durability in mind, Parkin and his colleagues designed a superhydrophobic coating, which is both waxy and rough on the nanoscale – two of the most important elements for any water repellent coating. Parkin explains that to the naked eye the coating would look very smooth, but on the nanoscale it is anything but. The coating consists of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, which allow a surface to be rough, coated with the waxy compound, <a href="http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.26667232.html?rid=fc07e73e-4952-419a-9785-773d9b4e4eaa">perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane</a>. By adding the coated nanoparticles to an ethanol-based suspension the team created a paint, which, when combined with an adhesive, can be sprayed onto glass and steel or used to dip-coat cotton.The team found that any surface coated with the paint, in addition to being superhydrophobic, was self-cleaning. ‘The key feature is because they have this surface roughness, water will form a “ball-type or marble shape” on the surface, rather than properly wetting it,’ explains Parkin. ‘The rolling action of the droplet acts as a miniature vacuum cleaner and it will pick up any dirt, bacteria or viruses, which are on the surface.’Another important property of this surface treatment, argues Parkin, is that it is much more robust than other self-cleaning surfaces. ‘Surprisingly, not only could you rub it with tissue or blow on it, you can actually rub it with sandpaper,’ he says. ‘We’ve done over 40 cycles of sandpaper testing and it’s still water repellent.’Ralf Blossey from the <a href="http://www.iri.cnrs.fr/">Interdisciplinary Research Institute</a> in France believes the self-cleaning surfaces’ ability to resist damage is very important. ‘That’s the key to this story,’ Blossey tells Chemistry World. ‘The method that they use has been used for a long time but the interesting thing [is] that they really bring it to [a] practical application to generate paints and sprays of these nanoparticles.’Parkin argues that if the team develop their treatment and can scale the process up, there may be great potential for it to be used in a range of commercial products ‘from clothes that could be resistant to staining through to anti-fogging surfaces’.

References

Y Lu et al, Science, 2015, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa0946

Topics

No comments

Research
Benzene’s bond lengths corrected
2022-09-22T09:00:00Z
Sophisticated spectroscopic method shows that previously reported values were out by several milliangstroms
Research
Surface reactions can be controlled by bulk stoichiometry
2022-09-21T13:50:00Z
Computational models demonstrate how the elastic properties of a solid can influence surface chemistry
Research
Cobalt nanoparticles behind alternative to lead-based Lindlar catalyst
2022-09-14T13:01:00Z
Dietary supplements market could benefit from catalyst that performs the semi-hydrogenation of a range of vitamin precursors

No comments yet

You're not signed in. To link your comment to your profile, sign in now.

Only registered users can comment on this article.

More News

News
Flexible electronics and quorum sensing among predictions for chemistry Nobel prize
2022-09-21T14:44:00Z
Bioorthogonal chemistry and nucleic acid sequencing favoured by chemists while citation analysis forecast includes chemical engineering, molecular biology and inorganic photochemistry
News
EU plots course to secure raw materials vital to a low-carbon economy
2022-09-21T14:28:00Z
Russia’s war on Ukraine and the pandemic have highlighted the bloc’s dependence on unreliable suppliers
News
Genetically modified purple tomatoes receive US approval
2022-09-21T08:30:00Z
Home growers will be able to purchase seeds from spring 2023

Tough self-cleaning coating sticks it to stains

References

Topics

Related articles

Benzene’s bond lengths corrected

Surface reactions can be controlled by bulk stoichiometry

Cobalt nanoparticles behind alternative to lead-based Lindlar catalyst

No comments yet

Only registered users can comment on this article.

More News

Flexible electronics and quorum sensing among predictions for chemistry Nobel prize

EU plots course to secure raw materials vital to a low-carbon economy

Genetically modified purple tomatoes receive US approval