Slippery omniphobic covalently attached liquid coatings mitigate carbon deposition by autoxidation of jet fuel

The decomposition of jet fuel at elevated temperatures leads to fuel fouling and deposit formation on metallic walls. Here, we develop and study an innovative sol-gel silicon dioxide (SiO₂) hybrid anti-fouling coating to mitigate fuel fouling. Our coating has low surface roughness (<1 nm) and low surface energy (<12 mJ/m²), reducing the heterogeneous nucleation rate during deposition. The sol-gel SiO₂, which forms the base coating, further minimizes exposure of the metal substrate to the fuel, which can act as a catalyst and increase the decomposition reaction rate. We tested the fouling behavior in a custom-built fuel fouling test loop. Tests were able to characterize the efficacy of our coatings and to benchmark performance with bare copper, stainless steel, and Inconel 600 metals as well as commercial anti-fouling coatings, such as alumina and SilcoTek. Our coating demonstrated reduced fouling rates of at least 96% when compared with bare samples.