Rational Design of Durable Anti-fouling Coatings with High Transparency, Hardness, and Flexibility
Peng Gao, Yanling Wang, Jing Wang, Fushan Wang, Wen Ma, Zhaozhu Zhang, Xuehu Men, Yao Lu
Abstract
Highly transparent, durable, flexible and smooth coatings with excellent anti-fouling properties have broad applications on cars, windows, and touch screens. However, the coexistence of these multi-functions is difficult to achieve in a single coating material. Here, a coating is developed with excellent performance of high transparency (98.8%), anti-fouling, high hardness (8H), and flexibility simultaneously (TAHF coating). In the material design, methyl etherified melamine formaldehyde resin, hexamethylene diisocyanate trimer, and mono-aminopropyl terminated polydimethylsiloxane (NH2-PDMS) were used as a polymer matrix to provide surface hardness, a cross-linker was used to provide toughness, and omniphobic groups from NH2-PDMS were used to provide anti-fouling performance. The TAHF coating has excellent liquid repellence even after six months of outdoor exposure, 260 h of UV light exposure, and 1500 wear and 2000 bending cycles, and its chemical shielding performance is superior to that of a commercial anti-corrosive coating. This strategy would provide a new route for the design of multifunctional anti-fouling coatings for practical applications.