Zhang, X; Zhi, D; Sun, L; Zhao, Y; Tiwari, MK; Carmalt, CJ; Parkin, IP; Zhang, X; Zhi, D; Sun, L; Zhao, Y; Tiwari, MK; Carmalt, CJ; Parkin, IP; Lu, Y; - view fewer (2018) Super-durable, non-fluorinated superhydrophobic free-standing items. Journal of Materials Chemistry A , 6 (2) pp. 357-362. 10.1039/C7TA08895G.

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Abstract

Although superhydrophobic coatings are commercially available, their weak mechanical durability hinders their large-scale applications such as for structural materials. Here a general press-in-mold method is reported to rapidly fabricate super-robust and non-fluorinated superhydrophobic free-standing items, through dispersing hydrophobic SiO2 nanoparticles into a series of polymers. The mechanical and chemical strength can be greatly improved by increasing the fabrication pressure, and the materials are found to retain superhydrophobicity after knife/file scratch, liquid nitrogen test, severe sand/water impacts, acidic/alkali corrosion and 2000 cm sandpaper abrasion. These materials achieved better abrasive-resistance than commercial superhydrophobic coatings and higher retention ratio after abrasion tests and hardness than those of bricks. Radar diagrams were used to generalize the results of the mechanical and chemical tests to compare material performances of SiO2/polymer blocks with bricks and commercial superhydrophobic coatings. The SiO2/polymer blocks achieved much better overall performance. This simple method has great potential for making either small domestic items or structural materials with robust superhydrophobicity.

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