Long-Term Underwater Hydrophobicity: Exploring Topographic and Chemical Requirements

A family of hybrid organoinorganic silica-based particles with varied chemical natures and morphologies has been synthesized to test their ability to develop coatings with underwater hydrophobicity. The particles were characterized by elemental microanalysis, scanning electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering to evaluate the organic content, observe the morphology, and estimate the aggregate size, respectively. These morphologies were transferred into surface topographies by spraycoating dispersions made from the particles onto glass supports, resulting in coatings with an ample range of profiles and roughness but all of them being superhydrophobic. Atomic force microscopy and optical profilometry were used to map the coating surfaces and analyze the topography. Then, underwater hydrophobicity endurance was tested by immersion under a 2 cm 20 degrees C water column perpendicular to circular glass supports coated with the particles. The so-called mirror effect derived from the occurrence of the primary plastron (continuous air layer occluded between the surface and the water) was observed on the surface of all of the coatings tested. Apart from the dependency of plastrons on the water temperature and substrate shape, the plastron quality and lifetime is notably different depending on the particle morphology and thus on the coating topography. These experiments have demonstrated that the most persistent mirror effects, and therefore underwater superhydrophobicity, were produced on coatings that exhibited the smoothest topographies at the micrometric scale. In addition, these particle-only coatings can be made mechanically stable and robust by blending with a polymer matrix.