Car Detailers Might be Out of Business

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http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/07...leaning-paint/

Researchers Developing Self-Cleaning Coating for Cars
By Doug NewcombEmail Author07.24.12 5:14 PM
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Depending on your relationship with cars, keeping your ride clean is either a ritual act of OCD TLC or you put it off until some wise guy writes “Wash Me” on your back window. If you’re part of the latter group, researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands (or TU/e for short) may have rescued you from spending time with a bucket and hose by developing a surface coating that not only repairs itself of small scratches but is also self-cleaning.

Self-repairing surfaces and water-resistant coatings aren’t new. Nissan has offered a self-healing Scratch Guard Coat on its cars for several years, and the automaker recently included the technology in a Beta test of a scratch-repairing iPhone case. Three years ago, researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi created a polyurethane coating for cars that heals itself when exposed to sunlight. The science behind most self-healing coatings involves implanting nano-capsules that mimic the way human skin repairs itself: The nano-capsules rupture when a scratch occurs and send healing agents into the damaged area of an electroplated coating.

While current applications of the technology lose their self-healing and water-resistant properties over time, Dr. Catarina Esteves, an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at TU/e, and several colleagues developed a way to keep nano-capsules in self-healing coatings vigilant and vibrant for longer. And keep their surfaces cleaner to boot.


The team developed nano-capsule surfaces with special “stalks” that are mixed throughout the coating, and at their ends contain the functional chemical groups needed for self-repair.

When the outer surface layer becomes detached by wear and tear or a scratch, stalks in the underlying layer reorient to the renew surface and restore the original function and finish. One of the applications for the technology is a highly water-resistant coating that maintains its self-cleaning property longer, making it possible for even slobs to have cleaner cars. Small “that’ll buff right out” type scratches are self-repaired, and water droplets simply roll off the car – taking dirt along with them. So instead of avoiding driving a clean car in the rain, with the TU/e technology an occasional shower is all it takes to maintain a reasonably dirt-free ride. Obviously, this won’t do much good for car-loving Southern Californians and others in the desert Southwest, and no word on whether the self-cleaning properties will last an entire winter.

The benefits of the technology extend beyond just the pleasant and temporal feeling of having a clean car. Other applications could include keeping skylights and solar panels cleaner longer, and it could also be a bonus to airlines and the environment since a cleaner aircraft surface means less air resistance, and reduced fuel consumption.

While the new technology could be a boon for lazy car owners, it still won’t help total klutzes as the self-repairing capabilities are only effective on superficial scratches that don’t completely penetrate the coating. And it won’t be putting car washes out of business anytime soon either. Esteves and her colleagues plan to further develop the technology with other universities and industrial partners (and at prices comparable to those of today’s coatings), but the researchers claim that the first coatings of this type won’t be ready for production for six to eight years.