posted on 2022-06-17, 18:08authored byPeng Gao, Yanling Wang, Jing Wang, Fushan Wang, Wen Ma, Zhaozhu Zhang, Xuehu Men, Yao Lu
Highly transparent, durable, flexible
and smooth coatings with
excellent anti-fouling properties have broad applications on cars,
windows, and touch screens. However, the coexistence of these multi-functions
is difficult to achieve in a single coating material. Here, a coating
is developed with excellent performance of high transparency (98.8%),
anti-fouling, high hardness (8H), and flexibility simultaneously (TAHF
coating). In the material design, methyl etherified melamine formaldehyde
resin, hexamethylene diisocyanate trimer, and mono-aminopropyl terminated
polydimethylsiloxane (NH2-PDMS) were used as a polymer
matrix to provide surface hardness, a cross-linker was used to provide
toughness, and omniphobic groups from NH2-PDMS were used
to provide anti-fouling performance. The TAHF coating has excellent
liquid repellence even after six months of outdoor exposure, 260 h
of UV light exposure, and 1500 wear and 2000 bending cycles, and its
chemical shielding performance is superior to that of a commercial
anti-corrosive coating. This strategy would provide a new route for
the design of multifunctional anti-fouling coatings for practical
applications.