Issue 44, 2018, Issue in Progress

Design and fabrication of vapor-induced superhydrophobic surfaces obtained from polyethylene wax and silica nanoparticles in hierarchical structures

Abstract

The present work reported a simple and effective approach to fabricate a low-cost, self-cleaning and mechanically durable superhydrophobic coating. The coating was prepared by dip-coating certain substrates in an ethyl acetate suspension of silica nanoparticles (SiO2), hydroxyl acrylic resin, cross-linking agent and polyethylene wax (PEW). Through the control of the cooling and drying process, vapor-induced PEW micro-clusters were formed on the surfaces during the evaporation of ethyl acetate, and uniform carpet-like hierarchical structures were finally obtained by properly adjusting the dosage of PEW. Under the synergistic effect of hydrophobic SiO2 nanoparticles and PEW micro-clusters, the composite coating exhibited a remarkable superhydrophobicity with a contact angle of 163° ± 5° with 25 wt% content of PEW, as well as preeminent self-cleaning properties against various food liquids. Moreover, the coating still maintained its surface cleanliness when immersed in the cyclohexane or hexadecane, indicating a superior self-cleaning property against solvent-contamination. The mechanical durability test showed that the coating still kept its excellent water repellency after fairly intensive knife-scratching, tape peeling and 25 cycles of sandpaper abrasion under 100 g of loading, indicating a quite admirable mechanical durability. The facile preparation and high-performance of the coating make it quite suitable for manufacture on a large scale, which is favorable for the development of superhydrophobic coatings.

Graphical abstract: Design and fabrication of vapor-induced superhydrophobic surfaces obtained from polyethylene wax and silica nanoparticles in hierarchical structures

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Feb 2018
Accepted
01 Jul 2018
First published
13 Jul 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2018,8, 25150-25158

Design and fabrication of vapor-induced superhydrophobic surfaces obtained from polyethylene wax and silica nanoparticles in hierarchical structures

Y. Guan, C. Yu, J. Zhu, R. Yang, X. Li, D. Wei and X. Xu, RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 25150 DOI: 10.1039/C8RA01666F

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