Wear stability of superhydrophobic nano Ni-PTFE electrodeposits

Commercialization of superhydrophobic surfaces remains rather limited due to the high costs of many fabrication processes and the poor understanding of the long term stability of their non-wetting properties. In this study, degradation of a recently developed superhydrophobic nanocrystalline Ni-PTFE composite made by electrodeposition was evaluated by a linear abrasion test on SiC abrasive media. For comparison, the same abrasion test was also conducted on a commercially available superhydrophobic spray-on treatment to benchmark the wear performance of the Ni-PTFE composite. Due to the microstructure of the Ni-PTFE composite coating, remarkable non-wetting properties were observed after extensive abrasive wear.