Smooth Water-Based Antismudge Coatings for Various Substrates

Smooth particle-free antismudge coatings show potential for various applications because they are not prone to the limitations that plague rough self-cleaning surfaces such as poor durability and transparency. These smooth coatings are typically prepared from solvent-based precursors due to their requirement for amphiphobic moieties. We report herein a facile strategy to prepare from water-based precursors smooth antismudge coatings that can be readily applied onto various substrates including metal, wood, paper, and glass. These novel coatings exhibit unprecedented antismudge properties even with a thickness of only 5.0 +/- 0.5 mu m and contain only 0.7744 wt % of fluorinated polymer. In addition, these transparent coatings retain their antismudge properties even after they are subject to bending, impact, scratching, abrasion, corrosion, UV irradiation, and thermal shock tests.