Fabrication and Analysis of ZnO Quantum Dots Based Easy Clean Coating: A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Investigation

In this work, ZnO QD have been synthesized and later characterized using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD has confirmed the crystalline structure and TEM provided an average particle size of ∼6 nm. Further, ZnO QD with different wt. % were incorporated into poly(vinylacetate)-graft-poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PVAc-g-PDMS) base matrix and several performance properties like water contact angle (CA), transparency and surface behavior were assessed. Molecular dynamics simulation helped to demonstrate that vdW and valence energy effectively control filler-matrix interactions and ZnO QD filler significantly enhanced matrix-substrate interaction. For this, Gaussian distribution function has been utilized to model surface roughness of PVAc-g-PDMS/ZnO coatings with randomized filler dispersion. Experimentally, scanning electron microscope (SEM) confirmed the presence of dual (micro and nano) scale grooves by ZnO QD alone due to their limited agglomeration, which helped to enhance water repellency by ∼16 % without compromising with transparency. Theoretical investigations reveal that the coating, formulated from non-health hazardous materials, possessed good transparency (>88 %), substrate adhesion (-4045.33 kcal/mol), water (CA=109±2°) and decent oil (CA=69±2°) repellency, which agrees well with experimental results. Conclusively, 3 % ZnO QD in PVAc-g-PDMS is a useful coating material with optimal substrate adhesion, transparency and fluid repellency.