No. 239: Technology to process the fiber surface to prevent it from being stained by oil (February 9, 2011)

A technology to put a special film on the fiber surface that repels oil has been developed by SNT, a venture from Keio University. The venture created a concavo-convex structure on the fiber surface to repel oil and coated the structure with fluorine compound. A work uniform can avoid damage by chemical droplets if it is processed using the newly-developed technology. The research team confitted fibers into the solution made of mixture of fluorine compound and spherical fine particles 50 nanometers in diameter each, and dried the resulting product. In the drying process, the fine particles created a fine concavo-convex structure that looks like the surface of East Indian lotus leaf. After creating the structure that easily accumulates air to prevent liquid from attaching on it, the new technology applies fluorine compound on the surface to block oil. The technology does not deteriorate air permeability, and the original performance can be maintained even if the work uniform is washed some 10 times. The sample of the solution is 100,000 yen per liter, and one liter is enough to process several hundreds of work uniforms. The venture plans to ship the solution nationwide in alliance with chemical companies.