A novel method to fabricate water-soluble hydrophobic agent and super-hydrophobic film on pretreated metals

This paper demonstrated a convenient method to prepare water-soluble hydrophobic agent and create super-hydrophobic film on the basic material of phosphating film and electroless Ni-P composite coating on carbon steels. Water contact angles and rolling angles of super-hydrophobic films were 155-168° and 2-3° on phosphating films, respectively, 145-155° and 15-20° on electroless Ni-P composite coatings, respectively. This water-soluble hydrophobic agent was white latex and had lots of micro-particles suspending in it. The thickness of the single-layer super-hydrophobic film with good corrosion resistance and stability was about 2-3 μm. The microstructure of super-hydrophobic film was discussed using XRD, EDS, optical and electronic microscope as analytical methods. This kind of super-hydrophobic film had a great many micro-particles dispersing in the surface, which contained F and Si and greatly increased the roughness of the surface.