Robust superhydrophobic surfaces from small diffusion flame treatment of hydrophobic polymers

When pure perfluorinated acrylic or natural wax-perfluorinated acrylic polymer blend coating surfaces are treated with small diffusion flames for a short duration, deposition of superhydrophobic nanostructured carbonaceous films is observed. The carbonaceous films display a good degree of surface binding which cannot be removed by impinging and rolling water droplets. The resultant surfaces have very low droplet roll-off angles and remarkable resistance to saturation against fast impacting water streams as well as to disintegration in ultrasonic bath treatment.