The bigger picture
This underlying technology that we are seeing deployed in the defense community today will quickly arrive, via applications aimed at everyday problems, in the consumer market.
Think, for example, of grease and fingerprint buildup on an iPhone or iPad — currently requires a regular rubdown with an easy-to-lost special cleaning cloth, possibly with cleaning fluid in the mix. What you will see in the marketplace, very soon, are thin film protective coatings that can be applied to the iPhone surface and permanently provide a safe, non-intrusive degreasing agent that literally eats the fingerprints and thereby removes them.
It’s part of a revolution – at the convergence of thin-film polymers and biobased product development — that is adding new functional possibilities to the world of coatings.
For some time, coatings have been expected to perform a function beyond prophylactic protection and a decorative effect. Some are fire- or scratch-resistant, or protect against corrosion. Coatings can be anti-reflective or luminiscent. They can self-clean, be easy to clean or have anti-bacterial properties,.
Coatings will begin to acquire functional properties – today, degreasing and nerve agent-munching. Tomorrow – well, anything that enzymes can do, thin-film polymers with embedded enzymes might do.
What’s coated in the world? Toothbrushes, pots and pans, refrigerators, televisions, computers, cars, furniture.
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