How Ultra Dry Waterproof Coating Works

By Estelle Larsen


A lot of uses for certain products are in demand by most construction industries. Developments and researches are non stop in advancing the technology that we have today to be able to produce products and methods in providing to these demands. Although there are already existing innovations that can benefit not just these industries but also for others.

These artificial breakthroughs have been mostly referred from the works of nature and has been adapted into technology. For example, the ultra ever dry waterproof coating can deflect any liquid substance from any surface that it has been applied on. This is greatly useful when it comes with decreasing drag on ships and submarines and also with equipment for construction work.

This is technically called a Superhydrophobic surface where they are intensely hydrophobic which means it deflects water making it impossible for it to be wet. This is taken from nature which is the Lotus Effect. The contact angle for the droplets of water is above one hundred fifty degrees while the roll off or contact angle hysteresis would be less than ten degrees, which is why these water droplets would just slide off from it.

In 1805, Thomas Young defined the makings of contact angles by which forces are acting upon these droplets of water. They are basically surrounded by the air and solid, and the intersection that these two have with the droplet would develop the basis of their contact angles. So visually, you would see that as the droplet is rounded, the angle is higher, therefore lesser contact with the solid surface.

This is developed through nanotechnology where the surface is structured up to that detail and can give exact and better results. The coating that was sprayed on the surface would be able to let the material have this ability. It can be sprayed on any surface like boots, cement, concrete, construction materials and equipment, glass, and others.

This deflects not just water but also hydrocarbons which also makes this Oleophobic. So it repels almost any kind of liquid it would be on. This is very useful when it comes to materials in construction where wet cement and paint should not stick to the funnels and other surfaces.

Although the general limitation for this is when it comes into contact with bleach, detergent, or any mechanical solutions. This makes it ineffective out in the real world where ships and planes would benefit greatly from this. While in nature, the plants can regenerate their cuticles while the artificial one cannot.

This issues was resolved after another innovation was made. It uses layers of porous polymer which is made of polyelectrolyte complexes. It is then coated with a fluoroalkylsilane layer which then turns it superhydrophobic. The undercoat, which is the polymer, consists of two other layers. These are poly allylamine hydrochloride and also sulfonated PEEK. They would alternate with polyacrylic acid which the thickness is about three microns.

These compounds provide a layer for durability that even with sever damage, it would still work provided that there is still the coating that is left on the surface. This resulted in a one hundred sixty degrees of contact angle that deflects water droplets effectively. Active repair also happens during a damage since the fluoroalkylsilane would bleed through the damage and coat it.




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1 komentar:

Jon Sigurdsson mengatakan... on 29 Mei 2019 pukul 02.22

Thanks for the post!
That was incredibly informative

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