SBIR Phase II: Durable Omni-Phobic Coatings

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The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to provide environmentally friendly, self-cleaning coating technologies. Fluorinated materials, known as forever materials, have been widely used due to their excellent self-cleaning properties, but the detrimental environmental impacts resulting from these coatings motivate the introduction of environmentally friendly solutions. This project plans to create a new technology to enable environmentally-friendly coatings capable of adhering to a myriad of substrates under any conditions, while offering high abrasion resistance and exceptional weather resistance. The successful completion of the project will set the stage for commercialization and adoption of this technology for household and industrial products, automotive applications, sensors, solar panels, and aerospace applications.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to validate pilot-scale production feasibility, enhance the weatherability, and enable the commercialization of fluorine-free, self-cleaning materials. Previous approaches toward self-cleaning coatings have had several limitations such as reliance on harmful fluorochemicals, high cost, poor scalability, poor optical properties, and low weatherability. The proposed technology is developed via a unique approach that enables higher performance, fluorine-free coatings (e.g., excellent mechanical properties, optical clarity, hydrophobicity, adhesion) while preserving the ease of manufacturing processes at a lower cost. The key objectives of this proposed project include: 1) pilot-scale production of the coating to set the stage for commercialization; 2) extend the weatherability for high-end applications such as those in the automotive and aerospace sectors; and 3) develop protocols for omniphobic additives for rapid implementation of the technology into relevant applications. The anticipated results include successful pilot-scale production tests, accomplishing the long-term weatherability, and the successful synthesis of omniphobic additives with desirable compositions and performance. The successful completion of the project will set the stage for commercialization and adoption of this technology for household and industrial products, automotive applications, sensors, solar panels, and aerospace, to name a few.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.