Spain. Aimplas (Technological Institute of Plastics), reported that it has completed research to develop new functional coatings for plastic, ceramics, metal and glass thanks to nanotechnology.
According to the researchers involved in the project, nanotechnology applied to the modification of different surfaces is a tool of great importance, both today and for the future, since many of the properties pursued or the requirements requested in a material depend mainly on its surface.
Currently there are very innovative surface treatments that allow a very important improvement of the properties of traditional materials, and that also provide new functions unprecedented until now.
This is the case of biomimicry, a scientific-technological branch of incredible potential that tries to apply the solutions found by living beings over millions of years of evolution to traditional materials. Nanostructured surface technology makes it possible to adapt many of these natural solutions.
During the development of the project, the treatments using the nanomaterials that currently have the greatest technological interest are being studied, both for polymeric substrates, such as metal, wood, textiles, ceramics or glass. The objective of collaboration between such horizontal sectors is to find and define common points, synergies and convergences between the different technologies of coatings and surface treatments. Therefore, as a previous step to these treatments, it is important to detect the feasibility of surface activation methodologies that could be compatible between metals, wood, textiles, ceramic materials and polymers.
Another of the points of special interest of this collaboration between institutes has focused on detecting convergences in the use of common characterization techniques between metals, wood, textiles, ceramics or polymers that determine the improvement of surface properties (tribological, sensory, microbial, varied functionalities, etc.).
These are investigations in line with a future trend such as the use of so-called hybrid materials: materials whose properties are no longer that of traditional materials treated individually, but that of a new material whose characteristics and properties derive from the synergies between them.
Therefore, one of the greatest advantages of collaboration between technological institutes lies in detecting and subsequently applying the existing convergences between the treatments, through nanotechnology, on the different surfaces and their characterization techniques, as a prospection for the development of these new hybrid materials.
The research work carried out within the framework of the Nanosurf project, funded by the Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (Ivace) through the European Feder Regional Development Funds, has been coordinated by Aimplas and has had the participation of four other centers associated with Redit: the Institute of Ceramic Technology (ITC), the Metalworking Technological Institute (Aimme), the Technological Institute of Furniture, Wood, Packaging and Related (Aidima) and the Textile Technological Institute (Aitex).
