Thin Transparent Photothermal Coatings for Rapid Defogging in Automotive Applications
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Date
2023-05
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Counteracting surface fogging to maintain surface transparency is significant to a variety of applications, including automotive lighting. Current energy-neutral approaches mostly rely on engineering the surface wettability, but suffer from contaminant deposition and lack of robustness and hence require frequent maintenance or renewal. This is particularly bothersome when the coating is within an enclosure, such as that of an automotive headlamp. Here, we design a maintenance-free, transparent, light-activated, photothermal composite material coating, to fully mitigate fogging-related issues. The coating contains dispersed indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles in a dielectric matrix and is most absorptive in the near-infrared range, where a significant fraction of the thermal energy source lies, thus maintaining visible transparency. Based on nucleation thermodynamics, the photo-induced heating effect enables sustained and superior fog removal, also prevention when compared to uncoated samples. The coating is fabricated with readily and cost-effectively scalable industrial methods such as spray or dip coating. Its functionality is evidenced with standard visible thermal sources and on predominant materials employed in car headlights (glass and polycarbonate), which enables its direct application also on existing such surfaces, or similar.
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Publication status
published
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Journal / series
Volume
145 (5)
Pages / Article No.
52001
Publisher
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
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Edition / version
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
Antifogging coating; Car headlights; Plasmonic; ITO composite; Spray coating
Organisational unit
03462 - Poulikakos, Dimos (emeritus) / Poulikakos, Dimos (emeritus)
Notes
Funding
179062 - On the fundamental role of substrate compliance and enhanced light absorption on droplet condensation and evaporation (SNF)
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