Grant: Engage Grants Program

The deposition of ice, snow, pollution or their mixtures on the surface of outdoor structures may severely affecttheir performance. Various preventative methods are used to minimize the problems of ice and pollution buildup on these surfaces. Among them is to use an icephobic coating to inhibit or delay the formation and adhesionof ice and snow on the surface.An ice repellent surface is a surface on which the ice adhesion strength is significantly lowered and where iceaccumulation can be easily removed from the surface.Our partner Nano Phyll smart coating, a manufacture of anti-graffiti coatings. The objective of the project is todevelop a new anti-graffiti coating with icephobic property by incorporation of micro-nanoparticle intopolymer matrix.The type and amount of micro- and nanoparticles as well as the type and amount of additives will be optimizedusing DoE (design of experiment) to obtain the icephobic property. The DoE method will be employed so as toreduce the number of experimental runs.The wettability and physico-chemical characterization of the developed surfaces will be studied using watercontact angle, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and SEM analyses. The ice adhesion measurementwill be carried out to evaluate the icephobicity of the new developed coating. If the current NanoPhyll coatingcan become icephobic, underused Quebec and Canadian anti-sticking Nano Phyll coating will be valorized andthe company will have new market opportunities.UQAC has the competence and the facilities to carry out this project. This will also open the way for aneventual collaboration between UQAC, Nano Phyll, and another industry which will be the end user of theproduct with the objective of further developing ice phobic coating and its commercialization.