Anti-fouling coatings for surfaces of hard and soft sensors

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Sensors are vital components in a broad range of industries. For example, the push for self-driving vehicles rely on various sensors for their safe traffic. However, a major issue isthat the fouling of the active surface reduces the performance and reliability of the sensor, due to blocked communications by optical or electronic signals. A protective coating of the active surface is an approach to solve this issue for wide applications of artificial intelligence outdoors, in bad weather or in harsh environments. This project proposes to develop effective and scalable synthesis technology for multifunctional coating on hard and soft sensor surfaces. The coated surfaces will be transparent to the range of wavelengths that the sensors employ for their sensing. Furthermore, the functionalized surfaces will be anti-fouling, anti-fogging, self-cleaning, robust and durable. The coating will endure the harsh conditions in bad weather, low temperature, or contact with the flow of process fluids. The design and optimization of the compositions and nanostructures will be assisted by machine learning. Novel coatings will be developed for transparent glass substrates with targeted applications in optical sensors outdoors required in autonomous drive in farms, mining sites, transport on land or in air. The project will also develop coating synthesis strategies for sensors in contact with complex fluids for biomedical imaging, or microsensors with complicated microstructures fabricated by 3D printing. The materials to be employed in the surface functionalization will be non-toxic, earth-abundant and earth-friendly with tunable mechanical properties.