The Development of Polysilazane

The main ingredient of Supagard's glass coating 'ExteriorGard' is Polyzilazane. Here are a few historical facts about this amazing product's development.
Polysilazane was:
  • Invented at Harvard University in 1964 by Carl R. Krüger and Eugene G. Rochow.
  • Used by the military for glass elements in the construction of tanks.
  • Used as an anti-vandalism protective coating in British cities since the 1970s protecting the famous red telephone and post boxes.
  • Used by NASA on the Space Shuttles protecting the ceramic tiles that in turn protected the shuttled itself against the fierce heat the Shuttle had to endure during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

P​hysical Properties of Polysilazane

  • ​​Polysilazane has a very high temperature melting point which means that they do not soften and become tacky at high temperatures like other carbon based polymers.
  • ​The viscosity of the Polysilazane allows it to penetrate into the microscopic roughness of paint and plastic and allows it to chemically bond to the surface.
  • Polysilazane is based around a –Si-N-Si-N-backbone, which creates a smooth inert 'glass like' coating on the paintwork and plastics of a car.
  • The inert coating does not interact with other bonds on the surface such as dirt, oil, soot, acids, pollen etc.
  • Polysilazane is U.V. stable which means the energy provided by U.V. light cannot break down the backbone of –Si-N bonds. This results in a coating that prevents oxidization and the fading of the protected surface. 
  • The coating is unaffected by strong mineral acids found in acid rain.
This image is from an Electro Microscope. It shows paint (the rough 'mountainous' texture at the bottom) with the section at the top being Supagard's Polysilazane glass coating, leaving an almost perfectly smooth surface.