STTR Phase I: Corrosion Protection via Self-healing Top-coat for Aerospace Applications

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在展示一种新的自修复腐蚀保护系统的商业可行性。腐蚀严重影响商用飞机的成本和可用性，每年造成数百亿美元的损失。所提出的自修复防腐蚀涂层（SHAC）能够对铝部件进行可重复的修复和持续的保护。所提出的SHAC与现有技术相比是独特的，因为它在分子水平上是天生的自我修复;它不需要催化剂/修复剂或任何形式的外部输入。本文提出的研究重点是降低系统在原材料和最终工业规模生产方面的成本，以及提高其性能和减少其对环境的影响。为了降低材料成本，GK将采用廉价的商品单体，但这些单体仍具有所需的功能，以产生自修复特性，并转换为与已建立的工业规模合成和加工相容的大分子结构。为了提高机械性能和阻隔性能，我们将添加光交联和纳米填料。这些目标将结合在一个明确的原型演示。 该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将来自于商业和军用航空工业中机身生命周期成本的大幅降低，既通过防止腐蚀增加寿命，又通过消除与腐蚀预防和维修相关的大量维护成本。这将广泛改善航空业的经济可持续性并减少对环境的影响，这可能会进一步提高整个旅游和货运行业的效率和生产力。在整个经济范围内，美国GDP的2%（1000亿美元/年）用于预防/修复腐蚀造成的损害。商业上可行的自修复面漆技术将大大降低腐蚀修复的频率和成本，延长产品的生命周期，提高经济的整体效率和可持续性。成功的SHAC示范和商业化将提高所有弹性体和复合材料应用的安全性和寿命。此外，通过仔细选择不同相的组成，将获得新的先进的多功能涂层，增透剂，结构复合材料，纺织品和光电材料，所有这些都具有我们动态多相设计所固有的性能和寿命增强的自我修复特性，最终导致一个新的改变游戏规则的“材料设计”范例。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is aimed at demonstrating commercial viability for a new self-healing corrosion-protection system. Corrosion significantly impacts both the costs and availability of commercial aircraft, costing tens of billions of dollars annually. The proposed Self-Healing Anti-Corrosion Coating (SHAC) is capable of repeatable repair and sustained protection of aluminum components. The SHAC proposed is unique from the current state of the art in that it is innately, at the molecular level, self-healing; it does not require catalysts/healing-agents or any form of external input. The research proposed here focuses on reducing the cost of the system in terms of both raw material and eventual industrial scale manufacture, as well as improving its performance and reducing its environmental impact. To reduce material costs, GK will employ inexpensive commodity monomers that nonetheless possess the desired functionality to yield self-healing properties, as well as switch to a macromolecular architecture that is compatible with established industrial scale synthesis and processing. To improve mechanical and barrier performance, we will add light crosslinking and nano-fillers. These goals will be combined in a definitive prototype demonstration. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be derived from a substantial reduction of the lifecycle cost of airframes in the commercial and military aviation industry, both by increasing the lifetime by preventing corrosion, and by removing the large maintenance costs associated with corrosion prevention and repair. This will broadly improve the economic sustainability and reduce the environmental impact of the aviation industry, which would likely further resulting in efficiency and productivity enhancement across the whole spectrum of travel and freight industries. Economy-wide, about 2% of US GDP ($100 billion/year) is spent to prevent/remediate damage from corrosion. A commercially viable self-healing top-coat technology would dramatically reduce the frequency and costs of corrosion repair and extend product life-cycles, improving the overall efficiency and sustainability of the economy. Successful SHAC demonstration and commercialization will lead to improved safety and lifetime across all elastomeric and composite material applications. In addition, by careful selection of the composition of the different phases, new advanced multifunctional coatings, encapsulants, structural composites, textiles, and and opto-electronic materials will be obtained, all with the performance and lifetime-enhancing self-healing property inherent to our dynamic multiphase design, ultimately resulting in a new game-changing "material by design" paradigm.