Zentek icephobic coatings undergo testing

Zentek Ltd., the company that has been advancing its ZenGuard technology of antimicrobial graphene surface coatings, has placed its latest innovation – icephobic coatings – under rigorous testing with sand and rain erosion assessments, demonstrating that the technology is durable in adverse conditions for both turbine and drone industries.

As a mining company that began its technology journey amid the COVID-19 pandemic to develop solutions to prevent the spread of the virus, Zentek began using the graphite from its Albany project in Ontario to produce graphene coatings – which has been proven to be 99% effective at killing a broad range of bacteria and viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the coronavirus.

You can read about this incredible company at 2021 was a pivotal year for Zen Graphene in the December 29, 2021, edition of Metal Tech News.

Keeping in line with its coating endeavors, Zentek has been creating a graphene-based coating that helps prevent ice from building up on green energy-producing wind turbines and drones.

"We are very happy with both the performance and durability test results for our icephobic coating and look forward to continued testing and demonstration of our technology," said Zentek CEO Greg Fenton.

With a sand erosion test at the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa, and a rain erosion test at the Anti-icing Materials International Laboratory (AMIL) in Quebec, the results, when considered with the strong performance under accelerated aging, show that Zentek's coating is durable is many conditions for its target market, wind turbines and drones.

A summary of the overall results to date as reported by the NRC and AMIL includes:

• Icephobicity tests at the NRC yielded strong and consistent results with an average shear stress of 20 kilopascals passively removing ice accretion (results under 100 kPa are considered to demonstrate low adhesion). Retesting a year later yielded the same results, demonstrating strong stability.

• Flight tests in real-world icing conditions demonstrated good performance of Zentek's coating, with results indicating a slowing of ice accretion (icephobicity) and low adhesion to accreted ice.

• 1,000 hours of ultraviolet exposure, equivalent to two years of UV damage in Canada, slightly increased the ice adhesion properties to 43 kPa, which is still considered to be an effective coating in removing ice.

• Sand erosion testing demonstrated medium to good performance at a high speed of 540 kilometers per hour.

• Rain erosion testing at AMIL demonstrated good performance at 160 km/h and 320 km/h based on interpretation, speeds at which the cutting edge of wind turbine blade tips are exposed.

• NRC drone testing demonstrated consistent results of maintaining control of rotor thrust in icing conditions while uncoated blades failed to maintain thrust in icing conditions; additionally, uncoated blades failed to maintain thrust in the same indoor controlled environment.

• NRC is preparing for outdoor, real-world environment testing of drone rotor blades with Zentek's icephobic coating this winter.

• AMIL is testing the performance of Zentek's coating on a small wind turbine in an indoor controlled environment.

"Ice accretion is a significant problem in the drone and wind turbine industries with few robust solutions currently available," said Fenton. "We believe our patent-pending technology may be a new innovative approach to addressing a significant global need and look forward to continued discussions with drone and wind turbine market participants who see value in potentially more effective icephobic technologies."

Zentek has filed a full patent application with the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the international patent office for Nanomaterial-Enhanced Elastomer for Passive Ice Accretion Prevention.