Submitted Abstract
In recent years, the scientific communities have introduced several superhydrophobic coatings with exceptional water repellency and worldwide industries, in a large number of economic sectors, have already indicated their interest. In 2013, an organic film able to provide superhydrophobic and oleophobic surface properties using a plasma chemistry was patented by LIST and in 2016, LIST granted a royalty-bearing licence to the young Luxemburgish company, Molecular Plasma Group (MPG). Through demonstrations carried out with customers during the last two years, a statement was established that, even if the hydrophobicity property meets the requirements of many customers and the process is very competitive in comparison to other techniques, already available on the market, the valorisation is still limited, as the robustness of the plasma coating solution needs to be improved. The idea of RESUPPLI is now to develop a second generation of fluorinated plasma functional thin films with higher durability performances and in parallel, to explore a fluorine-free plasma chemistry solution for superhydrophobic and oleophobic films. Coatings will be synthesized by an atmospheric pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasma polymerization equipment (PlasmaLine). Innovative deposition conditions will be addressed to elaborate (i) a copolymer gradient material with a barrier interfacial interface to improve its adhesion on any kind of substrate materials, (ii) an adjustable degree of cross-linking to control its mechanical property and (iii) a multilayer structure to improve its durability. To assist the decision regarding the research and development activities, a monitoring through a regular survey of the environment legislation constraints on the chemical substances and of the economic aspects will be established. At the end of the project, coating solutions and the deposition method will be transferred to MPG and tested to perform 2 demonstrators with selected end-users.