Sol–gel coatings with lime repellent properties

Calcification of surfaces by hard water represents a major issue for sanitary installations. Calcium carbonate precipitates forming crusts of lime that are difficult to remove. Much effort has been undertaken to avoid scaling, most methods require chemicals or create waste. We constructed a test rig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of sol-gel science and technology 2011-09, Vol.59 (3), p.574-579
Main Authors: Siegmann, Konstantin, Sterchi, Robert, Zuber, Franziska, Vetterli, Bettina, Widler, Roland, Hirayama, Martina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomolecules
Butadiene
Calcification
Calcium carbonate
Ceramics
Chemical industry
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Coatings
Colloidal gels. Colloidal sols
Colloidal state and disperse state
Composites
Crusts
Exact sciences and technology
General and physical chemistry
Glass
Inorganic Chemistry
Lime
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Natural Materials
Optical and Electronic Materials
Organic chemistry
Original Paper
Oxygen plasma
Polyethylene glycol
Polyethylenes
Polymers
Polypropylenes
Precipitates
Repellents
Scaling
Sol-gel processes
Solid surfaces
Substrates
Surface chemistry
Surface physical chemistry
Water hardness
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Summary:Calcification of surfaces by hard water represents a major issue for sanitary installations. Calcium carbonate precipitates forming crusts of lime that are difficult to remove. Much effort has been undertaken to avoid scaling, most methods require chemicals or create waste. We constructed a test rig which allows for the controlled calcification of various substrates. It is found that all solid surfaces investigated calcify more or less evenly. On the other hand, surface bound poly(ethylene glycol), PEG, is known to prevent the non-specific adsorption of biomolecules. PEG coated surfaces find their use in a variety of applications. Here we show that glass and plastics, such as polyethylene, polypropylene and acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene, can be efficiently made lime repellent by the use of sol–gel coatings containing a PEG bearing silane. It is shown that the amount of scaling is drastically reduced. Prior to coating, plastics have to be pretreated by oxygen plasma and an adhesion promoter has to be employed.
ISSN:0928-0707
1573-4846
DOI:10.1007/s10971-011-2530-8