February 22, 2025

German company develops nano coatings to prevent fingerprints from showing on stainless steel

According to foreign media reports, as many owners of stainless steel panel refrigerators know, fingerprints on stainless steel are often very obvious. However, the new transparent coating can help reduce fingerprints in three ways. This is actually a varnish. This "sol / gel nano-paint" was developed by the German company FEW Chemicals and evaluated by the team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Materials and Systems Microstructures.

First, it is super hydrophobic and oleophobic. In other words, it is water and oil resistant, limiting the extent to which finger grease initially sticks to it. In addition, it contains tiny particles, giving the surface of the coating a microscopic rough texture, consisting of tiny "peaks and valleys". As a result, any fat does not adhere to only the "peaks" and does not reach the "valleys" below-so there is less contact area.

Finally, the refractive index of the varnish is the same as the refractive index of finger grease. This means that whether the light strikes the clean part of the coating surface or the part coated with fat, the light is reflected in the same way, so the fingerprint area has the same appearance as the clean area.

Researchers at Fraunhofer are currently developing test systems for various versions of varnish, in which fingertip seals are immersed in a solution similar to the composition of skin oil and then pressed on the coated steel samples. A combination of spectral and optical techniques is then used to automatically assess how much solution remains in these samples and how visible it is.

The researchers hope that the varnish will be put into mass production by the end of 2020.

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