A simple drop-casting approach to fabricate the super-hydrophobic PMMA-PSF-CNFs composite coating with heat-, wear- and corrosion-resistant properties

A novel super-hydrophobic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-polysulfone (PSF)-carbon nano-fibers (CNFs) composite coating was prepared by a simple drop-casting method. Heat-induced phase separation contributed to the formation and evolution of coatings morphology. These coatings could spread on various substrates of glass, aluminum plate, and steel plate with the water contact angle up to 165° and the slide angle only 5°, especially. Providing the coating with good heat-, wear-, and corrosion-resistant properties was urgently desired for industrial applications. Simultaneously, CNFs modified by fluoro-groups as the mechanical low-surface-energy nano-elements benefited to enhance the coating surface roughness during the process of phase separation which had a positive effect on hydrophobicity. The morphologies and structures of the coatings annealed under different temperatures had been investigated through the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The possible mechanism of heat-induced phase separation to construct the nano-micro-structure PMMA-PSF-CNFs composite coating had been discussed that high temperature provided the kinetic energy to make CNFs aggregate to the surface of polymer (PMMA-PSF) phase and formed the cross-linked network structure. The enhancement in these preliminary results will guide the design and fabrication of the low-cost and high-performance commercial super-hydrophobic coatings.