Taiwan, China develops water-based environmentally friendly nano-hydrophobic anti-fouling paint

The hour hand points to 3 am. At this time, a lane of the Snow Mountain Tunnel was sealed, and several tired figures were staring at the closed lane, grasping the time for construction a few hours before the onset of traffic.
They are the R&D team of water-based environmentally friendly nano-hydrophobic antifouling coating of the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan, China. In the quiet night and light traffic, they wash the oil stains on the tunnel wall, and then paint the team. The developed special paint makes the snow mountain tunnel’s wall not easy to be stained, and the cleaning efficiency is 2.5 times faster.
The Snow Mountain Tunnel (formerly known as Pinglin Tunnel) on the Beiyi Expressway in Taiwan, China is the longest road tunnel in Taiwan. Between Pinglin Township in Taipei County and Toucheng Town in Yilan County, the Snow Mountain Tunnel is divided into a pilot pit, a main pit westbound and a main pit. There are 3 tunnels on the eastbound line and 6 ventilation shafts. The total length of the tunnel is 12.9 kilometers. When it opened in June 2006, it ranked No. 5 in the world and No. 1 in Asia.
Su Yizhe, research director of the Institute of Material Science and Technology of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, recalled that along the way, the team encountered various difficulties in the process of experimenting with the effectiveness of hydrophobic antifouling coatings.
For example, in order to actually test the anti-fouling effect of the paint in the Snow Mountain Tunnel, everyone could only hold their sleepy eyes as a “night watchman” and rush to close the driveway and paint the walls in the early hours of the morning.
Everyone has also tested the waterproof effect of coatings against the sea breeze and rainy seasons in Suao, but it took a lot of work to overcome the sudden situation of damp weather that made the coatings difficult to dry.
After continuously overcoming field application difficulties during this period, it attracted Kaohsiung Qingfu Shipbuilding Headquarters, which won the “Royal Architectural Society” international award, and came to the Industrial Technology Research Institute for help.
This beautiful ten-story steel-framed building facing the Taiwan Strait. Because the designer requires both aesthetics and energy-saving, a prominent aluminum horizontal grille is set up between the floors, although the glass window surface and the steel frame Staggering is more light, but it also causes great cleaning difficulties.
At this time, the addition of the environmentally friendly nano-hydrophobic anti-fouling coating team has allowed the glass curtain to play a competent role as a shining facade in southern Taiwan even if it has not been cleaned for several years.
This technology has also been used earlier to maintain the cleanliness of Taiwan Railways, high-speed rail cars, and windows.
Su Yizhe explained that traditional environmentally friendly water-based coatings still have defects in anti-fouling, abrasion resistance and weather resistance due to the limitations of structure and film-forming mechanism, so they are only suitable for indoor use. environment.
With the support of the Science and Technology Project of the Technology Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Industrial Technology Research Institute has developed a water-based environmentally friendly nano-hydrophobic anti-fouling coating. Through the introduction of nano-microstructure control, hydrophobic and oleophobic molecular interface modification, and mixed dispersion technology, it can be used at room temperature. It can be dried immediately, and it can be directly applied to the surface of glass, ceramics, wood, and water-based paint. It is especially suitable for outdoor environments.
He said that the water-based environmentally friendly nano-hydrophobic anti-fouling paint of the Industrial Technology Research Institute has the ability to withstand severe outdoor climate changes, allowing the building to have the functions of waterproof and dustproof, even if it is beaten by wind and rain, the waterproof and anti-fouling effect can be maintained. 3 to 5 years long.
It is worth noting that this technology has also entered the international market, jointly developed with the largest DIY water-based coating factory in the United States, imported its existing water-based coating products, and successfully won the United States this year patent.
Compared with general traditional water-based coatings, water-based environmentally friendly nano-hydrophobic coatings can increase dust resistance by 8-20 times, and can meet the requirements of anti-fouling, hydrophobic, high adhesion, and wear resistance at the same time.
This coating can be used not only in building materials, but also in glass, sanitary ware, 3D printed shoe materials, hydrophobicity, waterproof and antifouling, etc. It is also hoped to be further applied to yachts and shipbuilding in the future to provide long-term and stable antifouling effects.