Facile approach in fabricating hybrid superhydrophobic fluorinated polymethylhydrosiloxane/TiO₂ nanocomposite coatings

We have developed a facile, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive method of creating a large-area superhydrophobic surface on steel substrates by a simple spray-coating method. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry, and contact angle measurement were used to characterize the surface morphologies and wettability of the surfaces. The results showed that the hydrophobic –CH₃ and –CH₂– groups were introduced into TiO₂ particles which were modified from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. When the weight ratio of modified TiO₂ to fluorinated polymethylhydrosiloxane was 7:3, the as-prepared coating both the micro/nanobinary structure and the low surface free energy layer exhibited superhydrophobic properties with a water contact angle of 161° and a sliding angle of 5°. In particular, the fluorinated polymethylhydrosiloxane/TiO₂ nanocomposite superhydrophobicity surface has excellent durability and corrosion resistance. These fascinating performances make the present method suitable for large-scale industrial fabrication of chemically stable and anticorrosive superhydrophobic surfaces.