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Silicones and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) are widely used to create soft surfaces for applications that require skin-like mechanical behavior. However, their surface properties can differ substantially from human skin: complex aqueous fluids may bead, dewet, or roll off silicone rather than remain pinned, spread, smear, or transfer in the way they do on skin during contact and movement, despite similar surface energy.
Advances in surface chemistry, micro- and nanotexturing, controlled-wetting materials, tribology, and related fields have created new ways to tune how liquids interact with soft polymer surfaces. Similar challenges are also addressed in areas such as printing and ink transfer, prosthetics, biomimetic materials, and specialty coatings.
Durable surface-engineering approaches that reproduce skin-like fluid interaction while maintaining their properties through repeated use, cleaning, and storage could enable more realistic and consistent test surfaces for consumer-product evaluation.
We are looking for durable surface-engineering approaches for silicone/PDMS that create more skin-like interactions with complex aqueous fluids while maintaining the required coefficient of friction after repeated use, cleaning, and storage. Ideal solutions would include a proposed modification approach and supporting evidence of durability and transferability to consumer-product testing. The goal is to receive candidate surfaces on silicone coupons for comparative testing and evaluation.
- Covalent surface functionalization and grafted chemistries tuning surface energy and wetting behavior
- Durable coatings, thin films, or polymer-brush technologies
- Patterned or gradient surface chemistries creating controlled wetting, pinning, and fluid transfer behavior
- Micro- and nano-texturing approaches such as molding, embossing, lithography, blasting with particulates, or laser texturing
- Hybrid surface approaches combining chemical modification with micro-/nano-topography
- Demonstrates or provides a strong technical rationale for achieving skin-like wetting/pinning and smudge/transfer of complex fluids under application and movement/shear (addresses dewetting/roll-off seen on unmodified silicones)
- Can be applied to or produced on silicone coupons for comparative testing and evaluation
- Achieves or has a credible pathway to achieving the target coefficient of friction of approximately 0.4–0.6
- Supports a credible pathway to maintaining surface performance for months in storage and under relevant use conditions (hundreds/thousands of movement/rubbing cycles, and tens of washing/cleaning events during product testing)
- Clear surface-topography characterization plan using relevant parameters such as Sq, Sdr, or Vvc
- Strong proposed measurement plan using relevant wetting metrics (e.g., advancing/receding contact angles including top-down view initial and residual area evaluation) and/or tilt/roll-off plus smear/transfer and/or other validated performance metrics
- Temporary plasma-only hydrophilization or any other short-lived surface treatments that do not maintain performance through the described storage, mechanical usage, and regular cleaning requirements
- Approaches that cause blooming of extractables and leachables and/or tack drift
At P&G, innovation is what we do best. We love finding solutions to problems. With the heart of a start-up and the resources of a global corporation, we are always looking for ways to reinvent every aspect of our business. As we innovate, we find inspiration in people - their needs, values, desires, and passions. The people of P&G R&D know that collaboration is key to unlocking visionary thinking. Our experts seamlessly work together with our external partners in the pursuit of the new, the next, the impossible. Read more here: https://www.pgconnectdevelop.com/
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