nEasy-to-clean Surfaces - Special Applications

Easy to clean surfaces can be made by wet-chemical coating with subsequent heat-treatment. Organically modified metal oxide films form the base, reinforced by nano composite structures. The hydro-and oleophobic effect is obtained by perfluorinated organic molecule chains in the nano composite sol-gel coatings. Application specific materials can be synthesized by the proper choice of suitable starting compounds and process parameters. The resulting coatings consist of a three-dimensional cross-linked inorganic part (such as a silica network) combined with an organic part. The organic material acts either as a surface modifier (example: alkyl, phenyl) or as crosslinker (example: acrylic, epoxy). The properties of such coating systems can be adjusted to obtain a wide range of glass-ceramic or polymer-like properties. The incorporation of nanoparticles into these materials significantly enhances the abrasion and the scratch resistance. Such coatings mainly on metal parts are used in diagnostics, analytical chemistry and medical technology. steel and other metallic parts with special layers by wet chemical nanotechnology. This sol-gel based technique offers the possibility to uniformly coat tubes of different size and shape with environmentally stable hydrophobic or hydrophilic films. Besides sol-gel other lacquer systems are also in use. Such coatings are highly in demand to improve the properties of capillaries applied in various medical diagnostic systems.