Queen's University

<p><strong>Overview</strong></p>
<p>Founded in 1841, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario is one of Canada’s leading research-intensive institutions, combining quality and intensity in research with excellence in undergraduate and graduate education.</p>
<p>Research is a core component of the mission of Queen’s University. A member of the U15, a group of Canada’s leading research-intensive universities, Queen’s ranks highly in terms of research funding and research intensity amongst universities nationally.</p>
<p>Their commitment to research excellence is evident in the many exceptional national and international accolades awarded to their researchers, most recently Queen’s Professor Emeritus Dr. Arthur B. McDonald was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics – with co-recipient Takaaki Kajita of Japan – in Stockholm, Sweden.</p>
<p>This excellence, found across disciplines – from health care, the environment, materials, energy, law, economics, culture, and many others – attracts the best students, the best faculty, and the best collaborators from local and global communities, other institutions, government, and industry.</p>
<p>Through their diverse programs, Queen’s university promotes social innovation, fosters creative expression, and explores how societies work best. And it’s this culture of excellence that has made Queen’s one of Canada’s leading research universities.</p>
<p><strong>Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation</strong></p>
<p>The Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) team supports the advancement of partnerships, research collaborations, and knowledge mobilization as well as innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development. The QPI team develops and facilitates partnerships with industry, governments, not-for-profit organizations, and other academic institutions to advance the research enterprise at Queen’s and the commercialization of inventions, and to strengthen the regional innovation ecosystem in Kingston and Eastern Ontario. </p>
<p>With support from external funding, the QPI team offers numerous services, resources and programs to support entrepreneurs, including those from Queen’s, and to accelerate the growth of startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within Kingston and Eastern Ontario. The team has transformed more than 1,000 invention disclosures into hundreds of technologies covered by at least one patent; additionally, the team has supported the founding and-or acceleration of hundreds of startups and SMEs in the Kingston region.</p>


<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
<p>The accumulation of ice can have serious and disastrous consequences and is a major problem, in certain parts of the world, for a variety of industries, including automotive, aerospace, marine, power transmission, power production, telecommunications and agriculture. This has led to the development of “icephobic” coatings that either prevent the build up of ice or facilitate its removal via an environmental stimulus (e.g. wind). These coatings must withstand erosion, wear, UV radiation and other weathering conditions while being cost-effective, environmentally friendly and scalable, with respect to production. Unfortunately, many available coatings have limitations preventing their widespread adoption.</p>
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
<p>Researchers at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada have developed a lubricant‑infused, polyurethane‑based anti‑ice/ice‑shedding coating that has remarkably low ice‑adhesion (4 orders of magnitude lower than bare glass), is mechanically robust, has the same bulk hardness as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and is self‑healing. This fluorine‑free, bi‑layer coating comprise a surface “brush” layer of silicone oil‑infused polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and a cross‑linked polyurethane matrix that contains sub‑surface pores filled with PDMS and the silicone oil. The self‑healing properties of the coating arise when the silicone‑oil, contained within the sub‑surface pores, migrates to the surface thereby regenerating the PDMS “brush” layer. This coating readily sheds ice at a tilt angle of just 3 degrees. </p>
<p><img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/technologies/figures/sGPTpZCQRgWJfF2pb5nM_image.png" alt="Anti-ice/ice-shedding coating" /></p>
<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
<ul>
<li>Ice readily sheds off of the coating at a tilt angles of just 3 degrees.</li>
<li>The coatings are based on polyurethane so they are mechanically robust and have high bulk hardness</li>
<li>The coatings are self‑healing and the surface “brush” layer can be re‑established after wear or icing/deicing cycles</li>
<li>The coatings are applied in the same fashion as polyurethane‑based coatings with similar cure times</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="applications">Applications</h1>
<ul>
<li>Solar panels</li>
<li>Wind turbines</li>
<li>Power lines and telecommunication cables</li>
<li>Windows and windshields</li>
<li>Suspension bridge cables</li>
<li>Etc.</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="opportunity">Opportunity</h1>
<p>Queen’s University are seeking companies interested in developing and commercializing the technology.</p>
