International. AIMME (Instituto Tecnológico Metalmecánico), through the Nanogel project, evaluates hybrid sol-gel coatings combined with encapsulation chemical techniques and new surface treatment techniques on the properties of different materials.
The novelty of the project, in the field of coatings, is the study and application of hybrid sol-gel technology with inorganic encapsulation combined with new surface treatment techniques, to obtain transparent multifunctional coatings on complex geometries in substrates of a metallic, polymeric or vitreous nature. The materials chosen are associated with strategic industrial sectors such as automotive, aeronautics, machine tools or infrastructures.
In the case of metals, it is mainly sought to obtain coatings highly resistant to corrosion, as well as adhesion promoters with high barrier protection as intermediate layers of painting systems in both metallic materials and plastics or vitreous. Encapsulation technology is used to obtain highly effective and efficient self-repairing systems as well as develop coatings with high resistance to mechanical abrasion.
In the first phase of the project, an in-depth state-of-the-art study has been carried out on different advanced surface treatments applied to metallic, polymeric and vitreous materials as well as their possible applications. In addition, different techniques of encapsulation of nanoparticles and / or self-repairing systems have also been collected for their introduction into the new coatings, establishing the most appropriate routes in complex deposition systems.
The metal substrates selected in a first stage have been aluminum, stainless steel and carbon steel. Different treatments of conventional surfaces, such as the anodizing of aluminum or the electrozincing of carbon steel have been evaluated at the same time as new pretreatment systems such as plasma or new methodologies in electropolishing treatment. The evaluation has been carried out in terms of corrosion resistance using non-destructive electrochemical techniques such as Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, EIS or destructive such as Potentiodynamic Curves, CP. All of them with and without hybrid coatings as a final or intermediate treatment in a paint system.
In a second phase of the project, it is planned to study other properties, as well as other non-metallic substrates using encapsulation and/or self-repair methodologies.
The activities of this project have been financed by Ivace, through the Promece 2015 program.
