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Self-Cleaning Surfaces
with Morphology Mimicking Superhydrophobic Biological Surfaces—nGimat
Dr. Yongdong Jiang, Principal
Investigator, yjiang@ngimat.com
Dr. Andrew T. Hunt, Business
Official, ahunt@ngimat.com
DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-04ER84007
Amount: $749,969
The development of self-cleanings
windows and other surfaces could lead to significant energy savings. Unfortunately, current state-of-the-art
solutions have a number of shortcomings:
low clarity, poor abrasion resistance, and insufficient weatherability. This
project will develop low cost, high perfomance, self-cleaning coatings based on
the superhydrophobic nature of the lotus leaf.
Two proprietary processes, Combustion Chemical Vapor Deposition (CCVD)
and NanoSpray technology, will be utilized to synthesize nanostructured
surfaces, which will demonstrate improved performance at a much reduced
manufacturing cost. Phase I investigated
the critical process parameteres for the fabrication of the selected materials
system. Excellent material and physical
properties were achieved, including optical haze less than 0.5%, water contact
angle higher than 165 degrees, and water rolling angle less than 5 degree. In Phase II, the process parameters will be
fine-tuned to further improve the film's properties, with a shift in focus from
laboratory measured properties (hydrophobicity) to field tested properties
(abrasion resistance and weatherability).
In addition, the fabrication process will be scaled to accomodate
prototype samples (12 inch x 12 inch, or larger) for customer evaluation.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Self-cleaning surfaces have many applications and therefore several large market opportunities, such as architectural glass, automotive glass (where the self-cleaning feature can result in reduced vehicle weight by eliminating the need for cleaning fluids and improved driving safety), and cover glass of photovoltaic cells (increasing light transmission to the cells and thereby increasing the long-term efficiency of solar panels). It is estimated that self-cleaning surfaces could yield energy savings of over $100 million a year by removing the need for washing, scrubbing, and chemically polishing windows, ceramics, and other surfaces.