Patent ID: 6953071

Claim:
A pneumatic tire having an outer-facing surface area, the improvement comprising an outer layer of a coating composition on said surface comprising a fluorinated silane of the following formula: R f —R 1 —SiX 3−x —R 2 x wherein R f is a perfluorinated group optionally containing one or more heteroatoms; R 1 is a divalent alkylene group, arylene group or mixture thereof, substituted with one or more heteroatoms or functional groups, containing about 2 to about 16 carbon atoms; R 2 is a lower alkyl group; X is a halide, a lower alkoxy group or an acyloxy group; and x is 0 or 1; wherein the coating composition comprises a self-assembled film and the coating composition has a thickness ranging from 5 nm to 200 nm.