Superhydro-oleophobic bio-inspired polydimethylsiloxane micropillared surface via FDTS coating/blending approaches

In this work we render superhydro-oleophobic properties to the surface of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer through bio-inspired micropillar surface and chemical modification with a fluorosilane polymer, trichloro(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl)silane (FDTS). Two different chemical modification approaches were applied on both flat and micropillar PDMS: (1) vapor deposition of FDTS on cured PDMS surface, and (2) blending FDTS with the liquid PDMS precursor before curing. Comparative studies of the water and oil contact angles on the neat and FDTS-modified PDMS (both flat and micropillar) indicated that superhydro-oleophobicity was delivered by a combination of FDTS chemistry and micropillar geometry. FDTS-blended PDMS micropillar displayed better oleophobicity with an oil contact angle of ∼141° than FDTS-coated PDMS micropillar (∼115°). In contrast to the smooth surface of FDTS-blended PDMS micropillar, rough surface with some structure defects were found on the FDTS-coated micropillar surface caused by the vapor deposition process; the surface defects might be responsible for the observed low oleophobicity of FDTS-coated PDMS micropillar. Superhydrophobicity of FDTS-blended PDMS micropillar in terms of water contact angles was found to be independent of the quantity of FDTS. However, the oleophobicity of FDTS-blended PDMS micropillar was found to be dependent of the quantity of FDTS; with the increased weight concentration of FDTS in PDMS, the oils contact angle first increased and then leveled out at a finite concentration. FTIR and XPS were applied to analyze surface chemistry information suggesting the blended FDTS segregated from bulk PDMS and enriched at the surface to reduce surface tension so as to make surface super-oleophobic.