Innovation Pipeline

It’s a real headache for engineers: keeping electronic materials free of dirt and dust, especially electrical-generation systems and photovoltaic arrays, where the accumulation of dust can eventually lead to a short circuit.

Researchers at Georgia Tech think they may have come up with a solution: coatings with self-cleaning properties inspired by the lotus plant.

C.P. Wong, a professor at Georgia Tech’s school of materials science and engineering, has been developing a self-cleaning coating based on the structural characteristics of the lotus plant.

The lotus grows along waterways, usually in the mud. Its leaves and flowers have a waxlike coating composed of micron-scale and nanoscale structures. These minute structures help the plant can slough off dirt and water and enable photosynthesis in adverse conditions.

Wong’s work on his lotuslike materials is a collaborative effort between material scientists and chemical engineers at Georgia Tech. At close range, the materials they’ve developed reveal nanoscale bumps and valleys, a rough surface that makes it difficult for dirt or water to adhere to.

To achieve a rolling surface, the researchers used a combination of compounds, including the organic compound polybutadiene. Because the compound breaks down under ultraviolet radiation, it required improvements before it could be practical for use in outdoor applications–say, to coat insulators on high-voltage powerlines.

So Wong and his collaborators, Yonghao Xiu, Lingo Zhu and Dennis Hess, enhanced the material to fend off ultraviolet radiation. The team used a combination of silicone, fluorocarbons and inorganics like titanium and silicon dioxide.

Their research is supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA and other government agencies. It’s unclear how long these innovations will take before they can become commercially viable. But so far they show bright promise. –Lee Bruno