I-Corps: Improved Coating Properties Using Janus Particle Additives

I-Corps项目的广泛影响/商业潜力为涂料行业的许多长期挑战提供了具有成本效益的商业可扩展解决方案。该技术将有助于提高性能，如耐水性，附着力，表面硬度和成膜性。该项目不仅限于水性建筑涂料。它也可以应用于其他涂料体系，包括汽车涂料、印刷油墨、个人护理产品化妆品和医疗器械功能涂料。该技术可以潜在地提高涂层的性能和寿命，这些涂层在保护各种表面免受老化或劣化方面发挥着关键作用。此外，这一努力代表了一种平台技术，提供了一种独特的方法来控制表面特性，这可能使功能涂层的新设计成为可能，包括自清洁和抗菌涂层。这些新涂层的使用反过来可以减少对环境的污染，降低能源成本。I-Corps的这个项目是基于一种使用两亲性Janus颗粒创建自分层涂层的新方法，其中颗粒的一面可以防水，另一面可以具有高粘性。干燥后，Janus颗粒以快速动力学在空气-水界面处剧烈积聚。 它们的疏水侧朝向空气以增强防水性，而亲水侧保持与底层的强粘附力。该提案探讨了这种技术的潜在商业化和市场，用于创建防水涂层和新开发的自分层系统的广泛应用。它通过直接添加Janus颗粒而无需重新设计原始涂层化学品来提供表面性能的潜在改进。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project offers cost-effective, commercially scalable solutions to many long-standing challenges in the coating industry. The technology will help improve properties such as water resistance, adhesion, surface hardness, and film formation. The project is not limited to waterborne architectural coatings. It may also be applied to other coating systems, including coatings for automobiles, inks for printing, cosmetics for personal care products, and functional coatings for medical appliances. The technology can potentially increase the performance and lifetime for coatings that play a critical role in protecting various surfaces from aging or deteriorating. In addition, this effort represents a platform technology that offers a unique way to control surface properties, which may enable new designs for functional coatings, including self-cleaning and anti-bacterial coatings. The use of these new coatings may, in turn, reduce the pollution to the environment and reduce energy costs.This I-Corps project is based on a new way of creating self-stratified coatings using amphiphilic Janus particles, where one side of the particle can resist water and the other side can be highly adhesive. Upon drying, Janus particles vigorously accumulate at the air-water interface with fast kinetics. Their hydrophobic sides orient towards the air to enhance the water-repellency while the hydrophilic sides sustain strong adhesion with the underlying layer. This proposal explores the potential commercialization and market of such technology for creating water-resistant coatings and the broad applications of the newly developed self-stratification system. It provides potential improvements in surface properties by directly adding Janus particles without redesigning the original coating chemistries. The results will help guide future research directions of Janus particles and self-stratified coating materials.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.