The study on the self-cleaning property of hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane/nano-CaCO3 coating
Abstract
Dust depositions always degrade the building’s value due to the growth of mold and fungi. Manual cleaning is required to clean the building glass frequently which is time-consuming and costly. Self-cleaning coating is an effective and practical way to reduce dust accumulation. Using the sol-gel method, this study synthesized the self-cleaning polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/nano-calcium carbonate (CaCO3) coating. The coating recorded the water contact angle (WCA) of 99.5° ± 0.5°, indicating the hydrophobic property. The embedded nanoparticles create air pockets that reduce the adhesion between water droplets and glass surface. The hydrophobic coated glass showed the self-cleaning effect where the coating achieves a low dust haze of about 32% at the sliding angle 25°. The water contact angle (WCA) of the coating system degrades to 98.2° ± 1.2°, indicating the coated glass can maintain its hydrophobic property in the real environment after 1 month of outdoor exposure. In comparison, the bare glass showed large dust haze value above 50% due to the dust accumulation impact.
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