Neodynetics has developed and patented a series of related nanotechnology processes for fabricating advanced surface coatings having super-hydrophobic, super-oleophobic, anti-reflection and other beneficial properties. Glass, metal and textiles can be treated so that their surfaces contain a permanently-bonded nano-particle configuration that is suitable for many types of advanced applications such as

• Self-cleaning windshields
• De-icing aircraft surfaces
• No-fog windows, lenses and goggles.
• Anti-reflection glass
• Cloth fabrics that shed dirt, oil and hazardous chemicals

Super Hydrophobic/Oleophobic Coatings

These coating will be cost-effectively applied to many materials such as metals and textiles where they will impart important benefits derived from theirsuper-hydrophobic and super-oleophobic properties.

• Coated metals will shed dirt, snow and ice, and resist corrosion, making them valuable for military and commercial aircraft, aviation parts, antennae and machinery components.
• When the nano-coating is applied to textiles, the resulting anti-soiling properties will allow the fabrics to remain cleaner longer, thereby finding practical uses for military uniforms, chem-bio protection suits and other garments.
• Additional likely applications include anti-biofouling paints for boats, anti-soiling architectural coatings and many other products.

The resulting coated materials will provide many advantages over currently available products in military, industrial and commercial applications by providing

• Super hydrophobic/oleophobic properties with far greater rejection of water and oil
• Low-weight, flexible and air-permeable materials
• Coating transparency of more than 90%
• Robust, durable and long-lasting surface properties
• Low cost to produce
• Nonhazardous materials in production

ANTI-FOG COATINGS

Neodynetics has developed an advanced nano-structured coating technology that will impart new properties to lens surfaces, making them super-hydrophobic and super-oleophobic. The coating process employs established nanotechnology deposition techniques to create a series of thin-film mono-layers specifically designed to provide ultra-low surface tension based on their highly uniform nanometer-scale structure and surface contact angles (CA) greater than150o for both water and oil.

• Optical elements treated with this coating will be effectively free from fog and condensation, while remaining completely transparent and without noticeable light scattering or wave-front distortion.
• The technology will provide a highly durable, salt tolerant, scratch resistant, low cost coating process for silica and poly-carbonate optical components and will be easily adaptable to other materials as well. –
• The technology will benefit a wide variety of military and commercial applications. Initial optical products will effectively eliminate fog and condensation in various eye protection devices, optical scopes, and camera/video lenses made from silica or poly-carbonate.
• Coated window glass and windshields will remain clean far longer than exiting products and will shed rain, snow and ice, providing numerous benefits in the construction and automotive industries.

ANTI-REFLECTIVE COATINGS:

Neodynetics has developed a process for applying Random Anti-Reflective textures to sapphire, spinel and fused silica semi-hemispheric windows and domes to reduce sun glint. The nano-coating process is intended to impart not only anti-reflection, but also super-hydrophobic and super–oleophobic properties as well.

• Although a super-hydrophobic surface would provide excellent water repellency on a clean surface, the build-up of oil, dirt, salt and other contaminants over time could still diminish optical performance. Therefore, the best coating would also shed oil-based contaminants, thereby providing important anti-fouling and self-cleaning properties to the equipment.
• A low-cost process for imparting these characteristics can be readily scaled up and applied to large semi-hemispheric window and dome surfaces for use in military and commercial applications.
• The process can be applied to straight, curved and irregularly shaped surfaces with no loss in coating quality or uniformity. The resulting nano-structure will provide anti-reflective, super-hydrophobic and supper-oleophobic properties to the surface, thereby improving the performance of many types of optical equipment and decreasing their vulnerability to detection from sun glint. No coating process currently exists to provide these properties.
• In the future, the proposed application process can be extended for coating many types of glass, metal and nonmetal materials, adding new and valuable benefits to equipment including not only anti-reflectivity, but also deicing, anti-bio-fouling, water and dirt shedding, anti-fog and anti-corrosion properties to surfaces of boats, aircraft, windows, lenses, and architectural coatings. With these new properties, many products will realize improved performance while requiring less maintenance.

CHEM BIO DEFENSE FABRICS:

• Neodynetics has developed an innovative nanoparticle deposition process that uses a combination of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition and chemical self-assembly methods to create a highly durable uniform nanoparticle film textile fiber surfaces.
• The nano-particle configuration is designed to form the specific surface contact angles, local re-entrant surface geometry and low surface energy needed to render the fiber surfaces to be both super-hydrophobic (water repellent) and super-oleophobic (oil repellent).
• Fiber surfaces with this nano-configuration will provide robust protection against chemical and biological liquids and aerosols in a wide variety of military scenarios.
• The resulting anti-soiling properties will allow cloth fabrics to remain cleaner longer, finding practical uses for military uniforms and many types of commercial garments.
• Since the chemicals and nano-materials used in the coating process are inexpensive and the equipment is computer-controlled, the entire process is highly cost effective.
• The nano-processing instrument can be scaled-up to coat multiple surfaces simultaneously for large scale production while the resulting nano-coating architectures remain repeatable, uniform, durable and precise.