Use of Nanomaterials

Abstract

1. Description of application 1.1 Products and purpose of using nanomaterials 1 Automobiles, planes, ships, machinery, facades and the interior of build-ings, furniture, household appliances, magazines, posters and data stor-age devices: The list of products covered with lacquers and paints is sheer endless. In 2012 about 2.6 million tons of lacquer, paint and printing ink were produced in Germany (VdL 2013). This shows how important these products are in our daily lives. Surfaces are coated with lacquer or paint to protect them against mechanical, chemical and weather-related impacts but also to improve their aesthetic appearance. To meet the ever-growing demands on modern coatings, the paint industry continuously strives to improve their products. Therefore, over the past years nanotechnology has become more and more important in the development of coatings. The German Paint and Printing Ink Industry Association (VdL) assumes that within the next 10 years in Germany about 20 % of the turnover of the branch will come from the use of nanotechnology, in the form of so-called " smart coatings 2 " (VdL 2010). Additives containing nanoscale materials have long been used in the pro-duction of lacquers and paints, for example, barium sulphate and iron oxide as colouring pigments and synthetic amorphous silica to influence the fluidity of lacquer. In recent years modern techniques have been de-veloped to visualize and scientifically describe nano-scale materials and structures. It is therefore now possible to tailor the manufacture and use of nanomaterials and nanostructures in the coating industry to the specific needs of the various applications. Novel nano-based coatings are widely used today, for instance, to functionalize surfaces, to provide protection 1 Nanomaterials consist of definable structural components with a size range of 1 -100 nanometres (1 nm = 10 -9 m) in at least one dimension (See also the Commission's recom-mendation of 18 Oct 2011 for the definition of nanomaterials (2011/696/EU)). Nanoparti-cles are a subset of nanomaterials having the above size range in all three dimensions. Both natural and anthropogenic nanomaterials occur in the environment. Nanotechnology uses engineered nanomaterials. 2 " Smart coatings " are coatings with additional functions like thermal insulation, self-cleaning properties, controlled release of active ingredients or self-healing functions.