pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S19 - Special Symposium: High performance polymers
Oral Presentation
 
 

Design of the Coating Spraying Method and Processing Parameters for Maximum Surface Self-Cleaning Ability

Pao Wing Yi (1)*, Pop-Iliev Remon (1), Rizvi Ghaus (1)

(1) University of Ontario Institute of Technology - Ontario - Canada

Self-cleaning surfaces that can repel water, dirt, and oil are highly desirable for many applications, such as windows on buildings, exterior body of automobiles, solar panel surfaces, and membranes of electrochemical cells. The transparent and self-cleaning properties can provide excellent visibility, transmittance, corrosion resistance, and durability to the covered surfaces. Self-cleaning ability can be classified into two major categories based on their phenomena, namely hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity. A green, economically efficient, and scalable approach was used to fabricate transparent self-cleaning coatings of biodegradable poly-(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) on glass substrate. The coatings were prepared through dissolution of PMMA in solvents of dimethylformamide (DMF) and acetone, and by spraying with conventional dual action trigger airbrush in compressed air environment. A battery of designed experiments was run to conduct a parametric study of the effects of spraying conditions including spray distance, pressure, concentration, solution formulations, and spraying time. The coatings were characterized for their microstructures and static water contact angle using a high-resolution digital microscope to determine their self-cleaning ability. It was observed that acetone allowed faster drying of coated layers, whereas DMF improved transparency, the optimum formulation was found to be 20/80 (v/v) of acetone/DMF; and higher spray pressure resulted in more hydrophobic coating due to smaller particle size obtained.