59 / 2019-08-13 15:03:04

Superhydrophobic-self-cleaning bio-inspired polydimethylsiloxane micro-square-pillared surface via FEP coating modification

Superhydrophobic surface,Bio-inspired,Self-cleaning,Micro-square-pillared

全体主题 > Design and fabrication of biological systems

In this work, we render superhydrophobicity and self-cleaning property to the surface of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer through bio-inspired micro-square-pillared (MSP) surface and chemical modification with fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP). The FEP-sprayed with MSP was found have a high water contact angle of 154° and a low rolling-off angle less than 6°. FTIR was applied to analyze surface chemistry information, suggesting the as-prepared PDMS film (PF) was enriched extremely low surface tension, ensuring the surface of FEP-spayed PF with MSP achieved superhydrophobicity and self-cleaning. Moreover, the underlying self-cleaning mechanism was also revealed. These properties mainly benefit from the synergistic effect of droplets intermolecular force, chemical compositions (submicro-roughness FEP) and physical structures (MSP) of the PF. This finding suggest great potential value for particular self-cleaning applications, especially are exposed to outdoor conditions. More important, the investigations offer a promising way to handily design and fabricate multiscale hierarchical structures on polymers and other materials that possess desirable functionalities.