Researchers in the Center for Photochemical Sciences at Bowling Green State University have developed a coating system that shows promise in preserving historical monuments—and possibly much more.
Graphical abstract. Credit: Coatings (2022). DOI: 10.3390/coatings12081098 A team comprised of Dr. Joe Furgal, an assistant professor of chemistry at BGSU, doctoral student Cory Sims and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Chamika Lenora used three different forms of chemistry to develop a hybrid organo-silicon coating system that could extend the life of multiple surfaces subjected to high levels of erosion, including national monuments, historical structures, statues, cemetery stones and buildings. Supported by the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, the research team went in search of a way to mitigate environmental damage while developing a coating that cured quickly yet had a long life and could be applied in multiple ways. So far, their results have been both encouraging and award-winning. Presenting the research at the Polymer Initiative of Northeast Ohio (PiNO) conference in October at Case Western University, Sims won the PPG Choice Poster Award. Initially, Furgal was developing a coating system to make boat surfaces more hydrophobic, or water-repellant, but saw the park service was in search of research to make materials withstand erosion. The fit was natural. "I came up with this coating system and originally designed it for boats, but it was just a proposal at that time and we hadn't made anything yet," Furgal said. "When I saw the National Park grant, I thought, 'I wonder if we can use this sort of coating for monument preservation.'" After a full year of testing, the BGSU researchers discovered their system was, in short, effective on a wide variety of surfaces. "They could use it on anything stone, steel, iron, glass, concrete, brick, wood—pretty much everything but fabrics," Sims…