Facile method to prepare a transparent superhydrophobic PET film

A simple method to fabricate a transparent superhydrophobic coating was developed by spraying PDMS/SiO2 nanoparticles suspension on a hydrophilic PET film. This PDMS/SiO2 nanoparticles suspension was prepared by fully diluting and properly stirring. When this suspension was sprayed on the surface of PET film at a distance of about 30 cm for 2 s, a porous micro-nano-binary structure was formed, which endowed the hydrophilic PET film superhydrophobicity, while the PET film maintained transparent after spraying with a SiO2 nanoparticle layer. The as-prepared superhydrophobic PET film exhibited a high water contact angle of about 155 degrees +/- 1.9 degrees and a low water sliding angle of about 7 degrees. The formation mechanism of this transparent superhydrophobic coating on PET film was also discussed in detail in this paper.