Non-Condensing Anti-Fog Hydrophobic Optical Coating

Ultrahydrophobic coatings can provide an elegant solution to the anti-fogging problem that plagues current military optical systems. Biomimetic composite materials can offer realistic and permanent solution to the existing short-comings of current anti-fogging coatings. This proposal suggests realization of a biomimetic composite for anti-fogging films that: (1) are composed of an inorganic component that comprises the vast majority of the volume of the film, (2) contain an organic component that binds the inorganic components together, and (3) can be stacked via a laminating process thereby allowing the inorganic components to form a crossed-lamellar microarchitecture. The proposed coating coupons are expected to exhibit high performance in mechanical strength, robustness, optical clarity, and salt tolerance. To satisfy these requirements we will take advantage of layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly, which has been developed over the past several years by personnel of Nico Technologies Corp., for instance, for the assembly of clay nanocomposites. Films of clay platelets are of interest because of their high strength, superior environmental robustness, transparency, and excellent flexibility.