Fabrication And Properties Of Transparent Fluorine-free Smooth Anti-fouling Coatings

With the development of modern technology and the improvement of people’s awareness of environmental protection,liquid-like lubricated anti-fouling coating has attracted attention as an emerging functional coating material.The added low surface energy substances could construct a remarkably slippery,uniform and continuous brush layer on the material surface,thus endowing it excellent anti-adhesion,anti-fouling,anticorrosion,anti-bacterial and high temperature resistance properties,showing great application prospects in the fields of anti-icing,anti-fingerprint,anti-scaling,selfcleaning and droplet manipulation.However,there are several pressing issues that need to be addressed concerning liquid-like lubricated coatings.Firstly,the use of fluorinated substances with low surface energy to modify the matrix resin is limited by cost and environmental concerns.Secondly,the preparation and curing time of the coating are relatively complex and time-consuming,which restricts the application of liquid-like lubricating coatings on certain substrates and increases the curing energy consumption.Additionally,the preparation process often involves hazardous volatile organic compounds(VOCs),leading to increased costs and environmental pollution,which is of difficulty to realize the practical industrial application.To address these challenges,two promising transparent and fluorine-free anti-fouling coatings were constructed with the participation of polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS),which has low surface energy,high flexibility and chemical stability,as the main raw material in this work.(1)Starting with polyfunctional novolac epoxy resin precursor(F51)and bifunctional bisphenol A-type epoxy resin precursor(E44),the present work fabricated a series of lubricated self-cleaning coatings with high light transmission,hardness,flexibility,bonding fastness and large-scale production/construction advantages through silane modification and proportional allocation,for supplying the protection demands of substrates in different application scenarios.By adjusting the application ratio of F51 and E44,the hardness and flexibility of the coating could be conveniently regulated.Benefiting from the flexible design of the epoxy resin and PDMS surface engineering,the coatings exhibited excellent light transmission and dye mating properties,while effectively integrating bonding,anti-corrosion,anti-liquid and microbial adhesion,and possessed the advantages of simple process,zero VOC system,and low cost economy.(2)A paper-based coating system with anti-fouling and anti-microbial properties through simple hybrid brush application and rapid curing of MA modified bisphenol A diglycidyl ether(BADGE)and epoxy-terminated polydimethylsiloxane modified 1,3-Bis(3-aminopropyl)tetramethyldisiloxane(TMDS)was developed.The introduction of MA endowed the coating with outstanding antimicrobial properties,thus exhibiting excellent inhibition of common E.coli,S.aureus and Penicillium.Meanwhile,the coating had excellent hydrophobic lubricating properties for both water/oil-based droplets.Furthermore,the coating system possessed the advantages of simple preparation,rapid curing and high optical transmittance.In addition,the composite coating exhibited excellent mechanical properties and chemical durability,showing superior stability against daily wearing,bending,acid and alkali immersion,high temperature heating and UV exposure.