Nanotech for Coatings – Moving from Discovery to Commercial Reality

By Cynthia Challener

As buzzwords go, nanotechnology has been a pretty good one. The potential for nano-sized materials to impart unique properties to coatings has entranced many in the industry and led to significant investments in research and development efforts to convert that potential into practical applications.

In fact, the use of nanotechnology has been a natural progression for some coatings, where micron-sized materials (10-6 meters) have been replaced with nanoparticles (10-9 meters) and nanostructured materials. The ability to control and manipulate nanostructures enables the control and manipulation of chemical and physical properties of specific materials.

In coatings, nanotechnology has been introduced via nanoparticle additives and creation of nano-sized resins and particles through the sol-gel process, where the coating structure is designed beginning at the nanoscale, according to Dr. Li-Piin Sung, a research physicist in the Polymeric Materials Group of the Building and Fire Research Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

She adds that the list of demonstrated performance enhancements derived from incorporation of nanotechnology into coatings has grown quite lengthy.