Different-crystallinity pseudoboehmites for enhancing polyethylene film's anti-fogging performance

Abstract

As the most widely used greenhouse film material in the world, the fogging problem of polyethylene film seriously affects light transmittance and the healthy growth of crops. In this work, different-crystallinity pseudoboehmites were synthesized by hydrothermal method and used to prepare anti-fogging coatings on polyethylene films by blending with a surfactant (polyether). The crystallinity of rises with increasing hydrothermal temperature (from 80 °C to 180 °C). As the crystallinity of pseudoboehmite increases, so does the number of hydroxyl groups in pseudoboehmite. As the amount of hydroxyl groups increases, the pseudoboehmite crosslinks with polyether more tightly and firmly. All the pseudoboehmite/polyether coatings exhibit superhydrophilicity, excellent anti-fogging durability and wear resistance. The pseudoboehmite/polyether coating prepared from 180 °C hydrothermal pseudoboehmite shows the best anti-fogging performance. The thermal-fog persistence (60 °C) of this coating is more than 30 days. Meanwhile, the friction test shows that this coating is basically undamaged after 20 friction tests.