Water and oil repellency of flexible silica-coated polymeric substrates

A facile coating technique was used for the one-step creation of silica-sphere layers onto flexible polypropylene (PP) substrates, which showed the enhanced repellency toward liquid droplets with different surface tensions, ranging from 25.6 to 72.3 mN/m. One-step solution preparation comprised the homogenous mixing of colloidal silica nanospheres and perfluoroalkyl methacrylic copolymer, and the resulting F-silica slurry was subsequently deposited over the PP films, which showed good adhesion. The flexible silica-coated polymeric film displayed a remarkable repellency toward water and oil drops, when compared with the F-coated PP flat film. The silica-stacking layers on the PP substrate generated a roughened surface, owing to the creation of bionic surface hierarchically combined with multiple-scale architecture. To clarify this, the wetted fraction was determined from Cassie-Baxter equation, and the work of adhesion, based on Young-Duprè equation, was used to examine the sliding ability of the resulting polymeric films. The cross-cut test incorporated with film bending proved the excellent adherence between silica layer and PP substrate. A satisfactory durability in water and oil immersions for 10 days showed that the resulting PP film possesses strong adhesion and better repellency for a long period, confirming a promising commercial feasibility.