Diving into Functional Coatings: Self-Cleaning & Self-Healing coatings

Study and Compilation by: Anuj Agrawal

Date: 9th March 2022

The term “functional coatings” has been used as a buzz word in the industry just like “smart phones” in
the tech industry. Functional coatings can be described as the coatings which have special properties and
gives the surface new additional functions.

Though there are many types of functional coatings, in this Tech-File we will be discussing about those
which are starting to gain some market attention.

Self-cleaning Coatings

Self-cleaning coatings are those coatings which do not allow dust particles to settle
on the surface. These types of coatings are based on one of the following two
technologies:

a. Superhydrophobic coating (where water contact angle > 1400)

b. Superhydrophilic coating (where water contact angle = approx. 00)

Both categories clean themselves by the action of water. In a hydrophilic coating, the water is made to
spread (sheeting of water) over the surfaces, which carries away the dirt and other impurities, whereas in
the hydrophobic technique, the water droplets slide and roll over the surfaces thereby cleaning them.

Superhydrophobic coatings are developed using coatings which have lower surface energy and/or which
form a micro-rough structure. Low surface energy prevents water from spreading on the surface, and
micro-rough surface prevents flattening of water drop.

Superhydrophilic coatings work on the principle of photocatalysis. TiO2 has become a potential candidate
exhibiting photocatalytic activity and it is widely used because of its non-toxicity, availability, cost
effectiveness, chemical stability, favorable physical and chemical properties. In photocatalysis, Organic
and oxidizable contaminants are degraded by the action of light on a suitable catalyst. This lowers the
contact angle ~ 0°, thus making the surface superhydrophilic in nature. Such a surface has anti-fog
properties because no discrete water droplets form on the surface, but rather a thin transparent water
film.

Figure: Principle of self-cleaning mechanism in Superhydrophilic coatings

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 Figure: Different strategies used for developing self-cleaning coatings

Superhydrophobic and Superhydrophilic coatings also help in developing anti-icing, anti-fouling, drag
reducing and anti-fog functional coatings.

Self-healing Coatings

Self-healing refers to the ability of materials to repair damage automatically without any additional
external measures. Other terms for this behavior are “self-repairing”, “self-recovering”, and “autonomic
repairing”.

A lot of traditional coatings, for instance the classic chromate-containing anti-corrosion primers, can be
self-healing materials because in these systems the chromate acts as a self-healing agent: In the event of
damage, chromate crystals encounter the electrolyte, the chromate ions get solved and react with the
metal substrate or with the oxide layer respectively, and so “heal” the damage in the coating.

One might argue that high scratch resistance property in the coating might prevent coating damage and
is better than using a self-healing coating. Though it might be an economically wiser decision to use
coatings with high scratch resistance, they do not perform better than self-healing coatings in terms of

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aesthetic appearance. This is because the particles that lead to natural damage, for example sand grains
or mineral dust, are normally harder than any clear coat which could be manufactured.

Figure: Principle of self-healing coating mechanism

The most common method of developing self-healing coatings

is by microencapsulation of crosslinkable healing agents.

Common healing agents used:

a. Dicyclopentadiene
b. Methyl methacrylate
c. Linseed Oil
d. Bisphenol A with latent curing agent
e. Isophorone diisocyanate
f. Epoxy resins
g. Polydimethylsiloxane

The figure on the right gives a clear understanding about the

healing mechanism in such coatings. Top: Microcapsules filled
with polymerisable healing agent and catalyst embedded in a
polymer matrix; Middle: Crack ruptures capsules, healing agent
leaks out, and comes in contact with catalyst; Bottom: Healing
agent polymerises, seals the crack, and prevents crack
propagation.

Reference:

1. European Coatings Tech Files. Vincentz Network. Functional Coatings. Volkmar Stenzel, Nadine Rehfeld. 2011.

2. Ragesh, P., Ganesh, V.A., Nair, S.V. and Nair, A.S., 2014. A review on ‘self-cleaning and multifunctional materials’.
Journal of Materials chemistry A, 2(36), pp.14773-14797.

3. Biolin Scientific. Self Cleaning Coatings.

4. Paint Pro – Lotusan Self Cleaning Paint.

5. Biolin Scientific. Durability of superhydrophobic surfaces – the biggest obstacle towards real life applications.
Susanna Lauren. 2016.