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我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获得性，每年造成数百亿美元的损失。建议的自修复防腐涂层(SHAC)能够对铝部件进行可重复修复和持续保护。建议的SHAC与当前技术状态的独特之处在于，它在分子水平上是天生的自我修复；它不需要催化剂/治愈剂或任何形式的外部输入。这里提出的研究重点是从原材料和最终工业规模制造两个方面降低系统的成本，以及改善其性能和减少其对环境的影响。为了降低材料成本，GK将使用廉价的商品单体，这些单体仍然具有所需的功能，以产生自我修复性能，并切换到与现有工业规模合成和加工兼容的大分子体系结构。为了提高力学性能和阻隔性能，我们将添加轻质交联剂和纳米填料。这些目标将结合在一个最终的原型演示中。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将来自于大幅降低商业和军用航空工业中机身的生命周期成本，既通过防止腐蚀来延长机身的使用寿命，也通过消除与防腐和维修相关的巨额维护成本。这将大体上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行和货运行业的效率和生产力。在整个经济范围内，大约2%的美国GDP(1000亿美元/年)用于预防/补救腐蚀造成的损害。一种商业上可行的自愈面层技术将大大降低腐蚀修复的频率和成本，并延长产品的生命周期，提高整体效率和经济的可持续性。成功的SHAC演示和商业化将提高所有弹性体和复合材料应用的安全性和使用寿命。此外，通过仔细选择不同相的组成，将获得新的先进多功能涂料、密封剂、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提高寿命的自我修复特性，最终导致一种新的改变游戏规则的“设计材料”范式。

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.