Fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces based on fluorosilane and TiO₂/SiO₂ nanocomposites

ABSTRACT

In this work, we reported a facile method to fabricate highly stable superhydrophobic coatings via blending two kinds of nanoparticles and crosslinked fluorosilanes. Simultaneous use of nano-TiO₂ and hydrophobic nano-SiO₂ cannot only synergistically construct multi-scale roughness structures on the superhydrophobic surfaces, but also greatly improve the hydrophobic stability of the superhydrophobic coatings. It was found that the water contact angle and contact angle hysteresis of the as-prepared coatings were, respectively, 166.6° and 3.4°. Owing to the excellent properties of crosslinked fluorosilanes, the composite coatings also exhibited good thermal stability, chemical stability and self-cleaning property. Owing to its flexibility and simplicity, the method is a facile and inexpensive way to achieve the lotus effect and exhibits high values in practical application.

KEYWORDS:

• Superhydrophobic
• coating
• TiO₂
• SiO₂
• self-cleaning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Science and Technology Project of State Grid Corporation of China [grant number 5216A01600W3], Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province [grant number 2015JJ4007], China; and National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 21706198].