1.6 Nanostructured Composite Coatings to Harden and Toughen Polymer Surfaces
(Room 243-245)
09 Apr 18
5:00 PM
-
5:30 PM
Tracks:
Session 1: Powder Coatings, Session 1: Science Today - Coatings Tomorrow
Owing to their low density, high toughness, ease of processing and low cost, polymers are playing increasingly important roles in a broad set of applications, including electronics, vehicles, building materials, and industrial and household appliances. Compared to metals and ceramics, however, polymers have rather poor scratch- and wear-resistance. A common approach to enhance the scratch/wear resistance of polymers is to add hard coatings on their surfaces. However, many conventional hard coatings suffer from poor adhesion to the polymer and can crack easily. Furthermore, the conventional deposition methods for hard coatings are often done under negative pressure, making them expensive and challenging to implement for large-area processing. In this presentation, I will describe a new class of nanostructured coatings that have high scratch and crack resistance and can be produced using an inexpensive scalable method. We have recently developed nanocomposite coatings with extremely high concentrations of nanoparticles based on infiltration of polymers into nanoparticle films. These coatings can be formed directly on the surface of polymers to produce coatings that have very strong adhesion and high scratch resistance. Scratch resistant nanocomposite hard coatings can potentially be used as key components of next-generation energy storage and conversion devices as well as optical, biosensors and electronic devices. Also, such materials have applications as barriers in electronics and food packaging. I will describe the impact of nanoconfinement on the dynamics of polymer infiltration and also discuss how the composition of the coatings affect the mechanical properties of these polymer-infiltrated nanoparticle coatings.