Manufacturing of transparent and easy-to-clean coating formulations optimized by molecular dynamics simulations.

The effects of polyethylene polyethylene acetate and polymethylsiloxane copolymeration on the development of easy-to-clean coatings were reported.
before any material formulation and product development, the polymer industry increasingly uses molecular dynamics simulations to predict target performance.
in a recent study,

has been reported on the effects of copolymeric polyethylene acetate (PVAc) and polymethylsiloxane (PDMS) on the development of suitable easy-to-clean polymer coatings through simulation and
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's easy-to-clean capabilities have been evaluated
by molecular simulations of PDMS-g-PVAc with different wt%PVAc, and by evaluating properties such as surface energy, substrate adhesion and transparency. The pre-optimized 20 wts were then synthesized experimentally. %PDMS-g-PVAc, coated on substrates and characterized to validate simulation estimates based on their thermal, optical, and surface behavior.
interesting findings are that the properties of optimized PDMS-g-PVAc, such as glass transition temperature (T g), transparency and water contact angle (WCA) and transparency, are very consistent with the experimental results. In addition, the surface cover of methyl (-CH 3) and acetate (-OCOCH 3) groups in PDMS-g-PVAc was found to strongly determine the surface and interface properties, which has been confirmed by the discovery of surface and Al substrate interaction energy.

simulation protocol for fluoropolymers demonstrates reliability by showing the simulation density, solubility parameters, refractive index, and close consistency between the WCA and the reported experimental values of the original PDMS and PVAc. When compared with Teflon (PTFE), it was found that the best non-fluorine-based thyching comers exhibited similar or improved thermal degradation, transparency, surface energy and WCA.
believes that the importance of this work is to broaden the use of 20 wt%PVAc in PDMS of branched copolymers (PDMS-g-PVAc) as an alternative material for fluoropolymers for easy-to-clean coatings.
the study has been published in Advances in Organic Coatings, volume 136, November 2019, 105306.
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