Solid and liquid repellent coatings for universal fouling prevention

提高可再生能源的效率是一项重大的全球挑战。被灰尘覆盖的太阳能电池，被冰锁住的风力涡轮机，或被海洋污垢堵塞的水电大坝，都受到界面粘附物的影响，这些粘附物会大大降低性能。用于防止结垢物质积聚的一种策略是使用有效抵抗给定结垢物的粘附的防污涂层。然而，目前的驱避剂系统的功效是有限的，并且没有可用的技术能够防止各种不同的污垢物质。材料的排斥性是一般化的许多不同的污垢，包括各种固体，液体和生物体，将是非常可取的，但在污垢的基本理解的改进是需要他们的发展。近年来，已经开发出通过界面聚合物力学有效地防止特定污垢的粘附的新特性。这些发展还没有被纳入粘附模型，需要更多的工作来了解这些新的界面现象是如何相互作用的，以及它们如何有效地同时排斥多种类型的污垢。本研究计划将开发新的基础知识，阐明污垢如何粘附在表面上，以及如何通过聚合物力学以合理的统一方式防止这种粘附。为了了解一般的污垢，将研究特定的污垢系统，包括冰，藤壶，塑料（在3D打印过程中），熔融金属（在铸造过程中）和干泥。这些污垢中的每一种代表至少一种工程应用，其中污垢的积聚严重阻碍了最佳性能。对于每种应用，目前已采用不同的策略来帮助减轻结垢。例如，通常通过防水涂层减轻积冰，并且通过生物杀灭涂料减少生物污垢。这两种解决方案都不能有效地排斥其他污垢，但在北极沃茨，生物附着和冰积累对海军船只都是问题。而不是接近污垢近视，这项研究计划调查污垢从一般的角度来看。而不是表面化学，最近的力学为基础的现象，界面空化，界面滑移，和界面韧性将被用来减少污垢的粘附。这三种性能都可以在增塑聚合物中实现，这将作为这些研究的模型防污系统。一个概括的框架，结合这些新的性能将被开发来解释的防污行为的增塑聚合物。使用这个框架，材料将开发，可以有效地排斥几种不同类型的污垢同时。

Bolstering the efficiency of renewable energy sources in a major global challenge. A dust-covered solar cell, a wind turbine locked by ice, or a hydroelectric dam clogged by marine foulants all suffer from interfacial adherents that drastically reduce performance. One strategy for preventing the buildup of fouling substances is the use of anti-fouling coatings that effectively resist the adhesion of a given foulant. However, the efficacy of current repellent systems is limited, and no available technologies are capable of preventing a wide range of different fouling substances. Materials whose repellency is generalizable to many different foulants, including various solids, liquids, and organisms, would be highly desirable, but improvements in the fundamental understanding of fouling are needed for their development. In recent years, novel properties have been developed that effectively prevent the adhesion of specific foulants via interfacial polymer mechanics. These developments have yet to be incorporated into models of adhesion, and more work is needed to understand how these new interfacial phenomenon interact with one another, and how effective they are at repelling multiple types of foulants concomitantly.This research program will develop new, fundamental knowledge elucidating how foulants adhere to surfaces, and how this adhesion can be prevented in a rational, unified manner via polymer mechanics. To understand fouling in general, specific foulant systems will be investigated, including ice, barnacles, plastics (during 3D printing), molten metals (during casting), and dried mud. Each of these foulants represents at least one engineering application where the accretion of the foulant drastically hinders optimal performance. And for each application, currently a different strategy has been adopted to help mitigate the fouling. For example, ice accretion is typically mitigated by water-repellent coatings, and biofouling is lessened by biocidal paints. Neither solution is effective at repelling the other foulant, but in Arctic waters both biological attachment and ice accumulation are problematic for naval vessels. Rather than approaching fouling myopically, this research program investigates fouling from a general perspective. Instead of surface chemistry, the recent mechanics-based phenomena of interfacial cavitation, interfacial slippage, and interfacial toughness will be utilized to reduce the foulant adhesion. These three properties can all be realized in plasticized polymers, which will serve as a model anti-fouling system for these studies. A generalizable framework that incorporates these new properties will be developed to explain the anti-fouling behavior of plasticized polymers. Using this framework, materials will be developed that can effectively repel several different types of foulants simultaneously.