Introduction

In the tropical and subtropical regions, the climate conditions are mostly strong sunshine, high temperature, frequent rainfall, high humidity and serious air pollution with dust particles in the air. The appearances of exterior walls of buildings exposed to such environment get dirty easily and require frequent cleaning and maintenance. However, in case of high-rise buildings, cleaning is difficult, time-consuming and labor-intensive, and incurs extra expenses.

Coating Properties

• Adding nanoscaled easy-clean particles

Nanometer (abbreviation: nm) is a unit of length.  One nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter, which is about one-hundredth of average human hair diameter.

Materials with any external dimension in the nanoscale (1-100nm) are defined as nanomaterials.

Generally speaking, substances at nanoscale exhibit physical, chemical or biological properties that are completely different from those of bulk materials at the macroscopic scale.  We use nanomaterial-grade particles to develop the Nano Easy-clean technology to achieve low surface tension and hydrophobicity.  The oleophobic and easy-clean effect, combined with the excellent weather resistance of the new generation of fluorocarbon Lumiflon® FEVE coating, not only makes the dust, sludge, oil and gas in the air difficult to adhere to the panel surface, easy to clean and maintain, but also prolongs the lifespan of the exterior wall panels and keeps the building fresh and clean. 

Why does the lotus emerge out of the silt without staining? The super hydrophobic surface of lotus leaf is the key. It keeps water droplets high contact angle on the surface. Under the high-resolution electron microscope, scientists find the surface of the lotus leaf has papillary structures with a size of about 5~15 microns, which are covered with nanoscaled cilia-like structures.  This nanoscaled surface structure has high hydrophobicity. It’s the reason why the water droplets have high contact angles on the lotus leaf.  In fact, not only the water droplets cannot stay, but even the honey is hard to adhere to.  Therefore, when the rain falls the water droplets are easy to roll on the lotus leaf, the dusts and sludges gently attached on the surface are taken away together to achieve a clean surface.  This is the self-cleaning property of the lotus leaf, also known as "Lotus Effect".

The Nano Easy-clean Technology on coating finish we’ve developed in cooperation with a national research institute is simulating above concept to achieve the easy-clean effect of low surface tension, hydrophobicity and oleophobicity.  Various pollutants do not adhere easily, and can be washed away by heavy rain or high-pressure water jet.  It helps to maintain the cleanliness of the panel surface.

• Amphiphobic effect (hydrophobicity + oleophobicity)

What is Contact Angle (θ) ? -       An important indicator to measure the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of the material itself -       Varies depending on surface structures of objects -      The most common measuring method is to drop a droplet on a horizontal soild plane to obtain the θ value. -      Definition of hydrophobicity: water contact angle  80°≦ θ ≦120°

The coating adopted by the ALUCOMAT® EZ Clean series has both hydrophobic and oleophobic effects

	Surface of regular coating	Surface of easy-clean coating
Oil & ink mixed droplets
Oil & mud mixed droplets

• Long-lasting easy-clean effect

Experiment

Composition

Specifications

Total Solution Family

Most of the existing standard colors of  ALUCOMAT®, ALUCOMAT® Ti-Zinc, ALUCOMAT® Brushed, ALUCOMAT® Texture, ALUCOMAT® Terracotta, & ALUCOMAT® Chameleon could be upgraded to similar colors of Nano easy-clean formula.