Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 3, Issue 9, Pages 3508-3514Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/am200741f
Keywords
superhydrophobic surface; polymer; abrasion resistance; underwater stability; lamination templating
Funding
- New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) Faculty
- NYSTAR
- Center for Engineered Polymeric Materials
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Fabricating robust superhydrophobic surfaces for commercial applications is challenging as the fine-scale surface features, necessary to achieve superhydrophobicity, are susceptible to mechanical damage. Herein, we report a simple and inexpensive lamination templating method to create superhydrophobic polymer surfaces with excellent abrasion resistance and water pressure stability. To fabricate the surfaces, polyethylene films were laminated against woven wire mesh templates. After cooling, the mesh was peeled from the polymer creating a 3D array of ordered polymer microposts on the polymer surface. The resulting texture is monolithic with the polymer film and requires no chemical modification to exhibit superhydrophobicity. By controlling lamination parameters and mesh dimensions, polyethylene surfaces were fabricated that exhibit static contact angles of 160 degrees and slip angles of 5 degrees. Chemical and mechanical stability was evaluated using an array of manual tests as well as a standard reciprocating abraser test. Surfaces remained superhydrophobic after more than 5500 abrasion cycles at a pressure of 32.0 kPa. In addition, the surface remains dry after immersing into water for 5 h at 55 kPa. This method is environmental friendly, as it employs no solvents or harsh chemicals and may provide an economicallyviable path to manufacture large areas of mechanically robust superhydrophobic surfaces from inexpensive polymers and reusable templates.
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