Chemical and Topographical Surface Modifications for Insect Adhesion Mitigation

Coatings offer an advantage over previous strategies due to ease of application, potentially negligible weight penalty, reduced environmental concerns, better economics, and continual function throughout the flight profile. In this present innovation, a particular coating has been developed that is similar to the basic component of a majority of aerospace coatings used on commercial aircraft. This coating was then sprayed from a solvent on various substrates. Once spray-coated on a substrate and dried, the coatings were then tested for adhesion mitigation of insect residues in a controlled insect impact facility propelled toward the engineered surface at approximately 150 mph. Once impacted, these coatings demonstrated hydrophobicity and a significant reduction in contaminant adhesion. The coatings were further tested in an operational environment on the eco-demonstrator Boeing 757 aircraft. The coatings resulted in lower insect accumulation than the control surface (no coating). The durability of these coatings was comparable to state-of-the-art formulations and satisfies current aircraft manufacturing requirements. These coatings likely have advantageous use in aerospace applications, wind turbine systems, and automotive industry, among other industries. This innovation not only appears to solve a problem that has persisted, thus fulfilling an unmet need, but also comprises a new composition of matter that can lead to numerous unforeseen applications.

Low ice adhesion strength coatings are only useful insofar as they remain on the surface of interest, and aircraft leading edges experience extreme environmental conditions during flight. Ensuring durability while maintaining performance – in this case, reduction of impact (i.e., accreted in-flight) ice adhesion strength – is critical to meeting the needs of the aviation industry and other commercial applications. To that end, NASA engineers investigated coating compositions comprised of epoxy resins, including aromatic and aliphatic resins, and aromatic diamine hardeners. Several nonreactive additives were incorporated and tested. The first was holey graphene, a unique nanomaterial made by partly oxidizing areas of graphene that already have defects. This creates high energy functionalities that result in good dispersion throughout the matrix, enabling the mechanical properties of graphene to be imparted throughout the coating. Secondly, micrometer-sized core-shell rubber particles were dispersed throughout the epoxy resin to increase toughness. Finally, a series of polyhedral oligomeric silsequixones (POSS) were used for mechanical reinforcement. Several different coating formulations were development and tested, each incorporating different relative amounts of additives, with good results. Thus, the coatings can be tailored to meet different application-specific requirements. NASA's coating formulations, with further development, may be suitable for in-flight (i.e., impact) ice adhesion reduction on aircraft leading edges and other platforms exposed to harsh environments.

This technology is a copolymeric epoxy coating that is loaded with a fluorinated aliphatic chemical species and nano- to microscale particle fillers. The coating was developed as a hydrophobic and non-wetting coating for aerodynamic surfaces to prevent accumulation of insect strike remains that can lead to natural laminar flow disruption and aerodynamic inefficiencies. The coating achieves hydrophobicity in two ways. First, the fluorinated aliphatic chemical species are hydrophobic surface modification additives that preferentially migrate to the polymer surface that is exposed to air. Secondly, the incorporation of particle fillers produces a micro-textured surface that displays excellent resistance to wetting. Combined, these two factors increase hydrophobicity and can also be used to readily generate superhydrophobic surfaces.

The following methods can be used individually or in combination to generate superhydrophobic surfaces: Synthesis of novel copolyimide oxetanes with unique surface properties The technology is the synthesis of a polyimide coating or film with a modified surface chemistry shown in Figure 1. A minor amount of an oxetane reactant containing fluorine is added to the polyimide, and the oxetane preferentially migrates to the surface, enabling relatively high concentrations of fluorine at the surface, without compromising the functional performance of the bulk of the polymide coating/film. The copolymers exhibit mitigation of particle adhesion and fouling from exposure to various particulate and biological contaminants and exhibit reduced surface energy and increased surface fluorine content at extremely low oxetane loadings relative to the imide matrix (see Figure 2). Additionally, the short fluorinated carbon chains do not bioaccumulate, reducing the environmental impact of these materials. Modifying surface energy via laser ablative surface patterning This method uses a laser to create nanoscale patterns in the surface of a material to increase the hydrophobicity of the surface (see Figure 2). The benefits of hydrophobic surfaces include decreases in friction and increases in self-cleaning properties. This is an advantageous method of surface modification because it is fast and single-step, promises to be scalable, requires no chemicals, could be applied to a variety of materials, and does not require a planar surface for patterning.

In addition to previous LOTUS coating formulations, an additional optical formulation may be applied via vacuum deposition. This coating forms a top layer and may be applied in different thicknesses that serve to enhance its hydrophobic properties. The vacuum deposited material may comprise fluorinated ethylene propylene or a similar material. This coating is transparent and can be used on optical components or any other applications requiring a clear coating.