Anti-fouling coatings for surfaces of hard and soft sensors

传感器是众多行业的重要组成部分。例如，推动自动驾驶汽车依赖于各种传感器来保证交通安全。 然而，一个主要的问题是，由于光或电子信号的通信受阻，有源表面的污染降低了传感器的性能和可靠性。主动表面的保护涂层是解决人工智能在户外、恶劣天气或恶劣环境中广泛应用的一种方法。本项目旨在开发有效且可扩展的硬传感器和软传感器表面多功能涂层合成技术。涂覆的表面对于传感器用于其感测的波长范围是透明的。此外，功能化表面将是防污、防雾、自清洁、坚固和耐用的。涂层将承受恶劣天气、低温或与工艺流体流动接触的恶劣条件。组合物和纳米结构的设计和优化将由机器学习辅助。将为透明玻璃基板开发新型涂层，目标应用于农场，采矿场，陆地或空中运输自动驾驶所需的户外光学传感器。 该项目还将为与生物医学成像的复杂流体接触的传感器或通过3D打印制造的具有复杂微观结构的微传感器开发涂层合成策略。在表面功能化中使用的材料将是无毒的，地球丰富的和地球友好的，具有可调的机械性能。

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.