Active Interfaces and Coatings

First task of the group is the development of a new generation of multifunctional surfaces, which will possess not only passive functionality but also active and rapid feedback activity in response to changes in local environment. These surfaces provide key technology for fabrication of future high-tech "smart" products. These new multifunctional surfaces should combine passive components inherited from "classical" surfaces and active components, which provide fast response of the surface properties to changes occurring either in the passive matrix of multifunctional surfaces (e.g., cracks, local pH change) or in the local environment surrounding the surface (temperature, humidity).

The most important part in the design of new active surface is to develop nanocontainers with good compatibility to the matrix components, possibility to encapsulate and upkeep active material and permeability properties of the shell controlled by external stimuli. For the synthesis of the structured materials and nanocontainers, we will develop ultrasonic technologies by employing surface-active hydrophobic/hydrophilic materials (amphiphilic polymers, polyelectrolytes, surface-functionalized nanoparticles, etc.) as regulators of the cavitation process. The high local temperatures (5000-7000 K inside a cavitation bubble) and pressures combined with rapid cooling provide unique means for forming nanocomposites with non-equilibrium structure under extreme conditions.

Varying the properties of surface-active materials will enable one to perform control over the cavitation process, to increase the lifetime of the microbubbles, to regulate the temperature and pressure inside microbubbles, to regulate the energy balance and ways of energy dissipation (between thermal-chemical-mechanic energies) during microbubble collapse thus providing facile and fine tuning of sonochemically-driven chemical and physico-chemical processes.