Ion-mask super-hydrophobic treatment
21 April 2008Ion-mask, the revolutionary super-hydrophobic treatment from P2i Ltd, has attracted substantial investment from Unilever Ventures. The additional funding will allow P2i to accelerate the introduction of its ground-breaking technology across its chosen market segments.
‘The past few months have seen some amazing developments for the company, not only signing up our first high street customer for ion-mask, but also winning a prestigious innovation award at the ISPO Show in Germany,' said P2i's business development director Dr Ian Robins. ‘The benefits of ion-mask enhancement are well-known in performance textiles and laboratory disposables but with this additional investment we will now be able to take ion-mask to a far wider audience. True technical innovation is a rarity these days but having tracked P2i's progress over the past several months we spotted something pretty revolutionary in ion-mask,' added Mark Muth, director of Unilever Ventures. Ion-mask works by applying a protective layer, just nanometres thick, over the entire surface of a product by means of an ionised gas or plasma. This layer is molecularly bound to the surface and will not leach away. This transforms the surface of the product to display ultra low surface energy values down to one third that of PTFE and leading brands of water repellent treatments, displaying highly water shedding properties while leaving the other properties of the product unchanged. Invisible to the naked eye, ion-mask allows materials to truly breathe but stops water ingress, bouncing off the surface instead like beads of mercury. Further information can be found at www.p2ilabs.com
