A Novel Black-colored LiDAR-detectable Organic?Inorganic Hybrid Coating System for Autonomous Driving Environments

초록

In this study, a novel black-colored LiDAR-detectable organic?inorganic hybrid pigment-utilized coating system is proposed as an alternative approach for single-type of organic or inorganic black coatings and pigments. A hybrid pigment layer is fabricated by combining near-infrared (NIR)-transmissive organic materials with NIR-reflective inorganic metal oxides to maximize the NIR reflection and visible (VIS) light absorption. In the hybrid coating system, the organic pigment serves to fully absorb VIS light while allowing NIR transmission, whereas the inorganic oxide component promotes multiple internal scattering and enhances the back-reflection of NIR radiation. Organic-inorganic hybrid pigments are formulated as hydrophilic paints and coated onto the alumina substrate by spray-coating method to attain black coating layer with homogeneous surface condition. The black hybrid coating achieved a true-black color (L* = 12) with > 40 % NIR reflectance at 905 nm, enabling superior LiDAR detection performance. Accordingly, this newly developed black-colored LiDAR-detectable organic?inorganic hybrid coating system can be a promising candidate for next-generation autonomous paint application. - This research was partly supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (grant No. RS-2025-25437265 and RS-2025-25396489), and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (grant No. RS-2025-16070620). Keywords: Organic?inorganic; hybrid black materials; NIR reflectance; blackness; surface treatment.