Project description
A novel coating keeps glass looking like it just came from the factory throughout its lifetime
Anyone who wears glasses would likely jump at the chance to have a novel environmentally friendly coating that stops fingerprints from forming while at the same time ensures that dirt and dust keep on looking for a place to settle. The inconvenience and frustration turn into significant time and money lost when it comes to expensive and advanced optical lenses and solar panels for industrial use. Smudged and dirty glass may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the EU-funded Nadam-G project. Scientists have developed an environmentally friendly coating and the novel nano-coating deposition process to covalently bond it to glass. Support of the project will help researchers conduct a technical and financial feasibility study laying the groundwork for a market launch.
Objective
Today the glass lenses and solar panels have a low durability and are easily stained with undesirable fingerprint, oil, dust and environmental pollutants decreasing the efficiency of their optical properties and generating and extra cost and time for their cleaning. In addition, the most current approaches for achieving an amphiphobic material (repels water and oil) rely on fluorinated compounds such as perfluoroalkyl sulfonates (PFAS)s. However, these fluorinated compounds may be carcinogenic for animal and humans at relatively high dose levels with strong evidence for connection between exposure to them and several forms of cancer. There is a necessity to find an effective, self-cleaning material with a high durability that provides glass surfaces with a high resistance to ngerprinting. In response, our companies ONYRIQ (ON) and ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGIES (AD) have developed NaDam-G (Nanocoating Deposition of amphiphobic and fluorine free material on Glass), an innovative technology consisting of a fluorine-free(avoiding the damage to health and environment), anti-fingerprint (avoidance of fingerprint and smudges) and self-cleaning (inherent ability to remove dirt), polymeric material covalently bonded on glass by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD). NaDam-G imparts high-durability for optical lenses and solar panels (increasing the efficiency by 3.5 % and generating an extra 25% of electricity) while being self- cleaning reduces cost and time consuming. Having validated the reliability of the NaDam-G system at the pilot scale, we now want to finalise its development and achieve market preparedness. In Phase 1 we aim to carry a Feasibility Study to warrant the project from a technical, commercial and financial point of view. Besides the crucial benefits that it will bring to nanocoating sector, NaDam-G will boost the growth of ON and AN, expecting to gain € 43million profits and 26 new people after 5 years in the market, reaching a ROI of 16.3.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
08028 Barcelona
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.