NJIT Physics Department Seminar

February 8^th, 2010, Monday

Smart Coating Systems

Profs. John Federici and Gordon Thomas

Department of Physics, NJIT

(Device Physics)

Time: Noon-1 pm with 11:30 am tea time

Room: 407 Tiernan

Abstract:

The Research and Development Council of New Jersey presented the 2009 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award to US Patent # 7,244,500, “Smart Coating Systems.” Collaboration between personnel at Army Research and Development Engineering Center and a group at NJIT carried out the work behind this patent. The key concept in the patent was to develop a multilayered coating structure for military vehicles included layers with corrosion protection, corrosion sensing, self-healing, and sensory capabilities. We will present an overview of this work with an emphasis on our contribution. One aspect of our contribution was to develop fabrication methods and sensor designs for the coating structure. Sensor arrays up to 4” square on a flexible substrate were fabricated and characterized. Our sensors were integrated with a switch layer, a display layer and mounted on a panel with rust and scratch sensors.