Multi-​functional ice­pho­bic, ro­bust, light­weight and trans­pa­rent coa­tings for win­dows and len­ses - ISOS

Pro­ject sum­ma­ry

Ice on win­dow/lens sur­faces cause ope­ra­tio­nal dif­fi­cul­ties in op­ti­cal sen­sors and winds­hields. We pro­po­se a pas­si­ve, en­vi­ron­mental­ly friend­ly me­thod to pre­vent or delay ice for­ma­ti­on wit­hout the ap­p­li­ca­ti­on of en­er­gy while pre­ser­ving the sur­face op­ti­cal pro­per­ties. This so­lu­ti­on over­co­mes the li­mits of the ac­ti­ve me­thods cur­r­ent­ly em­ploy­ed that are cost­ly, en­er­gy con­su­ming, en­vi­ron­mental­ly harm­ful and dan­ge­rous for lens/win­dow in­te­gri­ty. Two fa­mi­lies of in­no­va­ti­ve ma­te­ri­als (func­tio­na­li­zed gra­phe­ne and self-​lubricating li­quid water layer) will be syn­the­sis­ed, cha­rac­te­ri­sed, and tested at lab level for multi-​functional coa­tings (TRL4), with ice­pho­bic, ro­bust, light­weight and trans­pa­rent pro­per­ties. The pro­po­sed ap­proach is fle­xi­ble, cost-​effective and scalable in pro­duc­tion, al­lo­wing a fast in­te­gra­ti­on at in­dus­tri­al scale. The per­for­man­ces of the coa­tings for in­dus­tri­al ap­p­li­ca­ti­on in the op­ti­cal sen­sor mar­ket sec­tor will be as­ses­sed and va­li­da­ted with the in­dus­tri­al ad­vi­so­ry board.