New fluorine-free self-healing anti-smudge coatings
A new study reports on a simple strategy for the fabrication of phenolic polyurethane coatings with self-healing and anti-smudge properties as well as good mechanical strength and optical clarity.
The obtained coatings showed excellent anti-smudge properties. Image source: Clker-Free-Vector-Images - Pixabay (symbol image).
-Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was incorporated to impart anti-smudge performance into urethane matrix comprised of bio-based propyl gallate, hexamethylene diisocyanate trimer, and polytetrahydrofuran prepolymer. Propyl gallate was used as a reversible crosslinker to impart the self-healing properties to the coating.
Promising self-healing properties
The obtained coatings showed excellent anti-smudge properties as evident from their water, oil, ink, and hexadecane repellencies. Also, these coatings showed excellent optical clarity approach 100% transmittance. Furthermore, these coatings exhibit promising self-healing properties, which recover from 40 μm cuts in ∼10 min at 120 ℃ and in 1 h at 80 ℃.
As this approach offers a simple route towards multi-functional coatings, real-world applications are anticipated for the coatings reported in the study.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 145, August 2020.
Image source: Pixabay.
