Facile fabrication of translucent superamphiphobic coating on paper to prevent liquid pollution

•Translucent superamphiphobic paper was fabricated by a facile spray-coating process.•The superamphiphobic paper appears to preserve re-entrant morphology.•A variety of liquids exhibit typical spherical shape on the paper with the contact angles over 150°.•The superamphiphobic paper was found to be translucent.

A simple spray-coating technique for fabrication of translucent superamphiphobic coating on A4 paper was developed by spraying fluorinated SiO2 nanoparticle suspensions. The fluorinated SiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by imparting perfluorodecyltrichloro group on SiO2 nanoparticle surfaces. The combination of aggregate protrusions and pores and high perfluorinated carbon content via spray-coating process appear to preserve re-entrant curvature morphology and low surface energy to enable the formation of a robust composite interface with low surface tension liquids. A variety of liquids, ranging from water to organic liquids, even the rapeseed oil and hexadecane, exhibit typical spherical shapes on the superamphiphobic paper with the contact angles over 150° and easily roll off at low sliding angles. Futhermore, the obtained superamphiphobic SiO2 paper was found to be translucent and the visibility of the characters on the paper was almost not changed after spraying the fluorinated SiO2 nanoparticles.

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