Nano engineering solutions for environmentally green surface coatings

该项目旨在开发新型的无氟超疏水(憎水)表面，由现成的无毒和经济的支化低表面能材料(LSEM)制成。与现有的LSEM相比，这些材料具有重要的优势，包括可生物降解性、环境接受性，并且与目前通常使用氟碳化合物制造的超疏水材料相比，批量生产成本更低。由于生物持久性和生物蓄积性，含氟化合物具有显著的环境风险，而且成本极高。低表面能表面的应用从保护性或防粘连涂层和防污垢到环境和生物医学应用，应有尽有。这项研究将集中在从基础科学到依赖LSE的应用的不同领域。

This project aims to develop novel fluorine-free superhydrophobic (water-repelling) surfaces, made from readily available non-toxic and economical branched low surface energy materials (LSEMs). These have important advantages over the existing LSEMs, including biodegradability, environmental acceptance and are cheaper to mass produce compared with current superhydrophobic materials which are typically made using fluorocarbons. Fluorinated compounds have significant environmental risks due to bio-persistence and bio-accumulation, and are also extremely costly. The applications of low surface energy surfaces vary from protective or anti-adhesion coatings and anti-fouling to environmental and biomedical applications. The research will focus on diverse areas from fundamental science to applications that rely on LSEMs.