The smartphone has now become an integral part of our days. We use it in an infinite number of contexts and to carry out the most disparate operations. Since modern smartphones operate using touchscreen technology, your fingers constantly come into contact with the screen. Thus, fingerprints accumulate on the screens of our smartphones due to the grease naturally present at our fingertips.
Even though modern smartphone screens are equipped with a oleophobic coating which avoidsexcessive accumulation of fingerprints on its surface, it must be said that it tends to deteriorate over time, reducing its ability to not retain fingerprints. Additionally, if you apply screen protectors without an oleophobic coating, they are more likely to get dirty. To clean fingerprints while preventing the oleophobic treatment from deteriorating, the best choice is to wipe the screen with a dry microfiber cloth or use a less aggressive product.
How the oleophobic coating on your phone screen works
THE olephobic coating (defined by some smartphone manufacturers oleophobic), now present on all smartphones in circulation, is made up of a particular layer of coating which has the function of protecting the screen, improving its softness and, obviously, reducing the probability that fingerprints are deposited on the surface of the screen. The etymology of the term oleophobic allows us to understand very clearly the meaning of the term, which derives from the Greek
How is the oleophobic coating of screens made? It is generally carried out with a thin layer of fluoropolymer materialswhose properties allow us to repel oil and grease residues present on our fingertips which would otherwise easily deposit on the surface of the screen.
As the science communicator explained Bill Nye in an article published on Gizmodo a few weeks after the presentation ofiPhone 3GS – the first smartphone to integrate a screen with oleophobic treatment, announced in 2009 – this technology is created by exploiting certain chemical properties which repel oils. To go into more detail, Nye reported:
Researchers (from Apple, editor’s note) managed to obtain this result by sticking this oleophobic polymer on glass. The polymer is an organic compound (coming from organisms), based on carbon. Glass is nominally inorganic, based on silicon…a solid rock. The trick is to make one stick to the other. (…) This probably happens with a third molecule which attaches to silicon on one side and to carbon polymers on the other. Chemical engineers make it stick by making the compounds diffuse or “interpenetrate” in the polymer. The intermediate chemical is a “silane,” a molecule that contains silicon and alkanes (chains of carbon atoms). (…) The polymer that covers the iPhone 3GS screen does not let the oil from your skin adhere to it. The key lies in the intermediate compounds, the silanes that bond the plastic to the glass.
“Translated” into simple terms, the oleophobic coating present on smartphones is therefore made in such a way that, from a chemical point of view, there are no ideal conditions for the oil and grease residues present on the surface of the smartphone “stick” to the screen.
What to do if your phone screen is dirty and how to remove fingerprints
Unfortunately, the oleophobic coating is not forever and tends to wear away over time. Smartphone manufacturers are clearly aware of this and even admit this problem on their official documents.
Applefor example, on a help page of its official site indicates:
iPhone has an oleophobic (oil-repellent) coating that resists fingerprints. This coating will wear away over time with normal use.
Over time, it is therefore practically physiological that the oleophobic coating degrades and is less effective in preventing the accumulation of fingerprints on the screen. However, to prevent this from happening prematurely, it is important do not use aggressive products to clean the screen, such as those containing bleach or hydrogen peroxide (those containing 70% isopropyl alcohol or 75% ethyl alcohol are generally approved by manufacturers). In reality, to be honest, if the oleophobic coating is intact, to clean the smartphone screen it is enough to use a simple microfiber cloth.
