Development of new multifunctional coatings: transparent, with superhydrophobicity properties and wear resistance

Abstract

In the last decade, superhydrophobicity (SH) phenomenon has aroused a great interest. This fact has been motivated by large and important functionalities that can be achieved by these SH surfaces: self-cleaning solutions, water repellancy, anticorrosive, anti-stain, anti-icing, antifouling, among others. SH is defined by the low surface energy of the material as well as the morphology of the own surface. However, due to the fact that hydrophobicity is a superficial property, its main disadvantage is its limited wear resistance, which causes a low durability and a limited comercial use. This fact, together with the complexity and low effectiveness, from the economic point of view compared with the existing coatings fabrication techniques, makes necessary the research of new alternatives for the demanding market, being a technological challenge to find them. Moreover, organic coatings are widely used in industry in a number of surfaces due to the ease and low cost of application methods. Concretely, nanocomposites fabrication from organic polymers using nanoparticles as additives, has been creating  high expectatives in the coatings industry sector. In this work, new organic coatings based on the integration of surface modified nanoparticles with hydrophobic moieties have been developed, in order to achieve hidrophobicity in organic polymeric matrices (paints). Likewise, different nanoparticles have been used in order to achieve synergistic effects that could provide a determined superficial rugosity and then, reaching simultaneously transparent, hydrophobic and abrasion wear resistant coatings.