Electrically conducting superhydrophobic microtextured carbon nanotube nanocomposite

We report a simple and inexpensive method of producing an electrically conductive superhydrophobic polymer surface by adding multiwall carbon nanotubes directly into the polymer poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) matrix and replicating micro/nanotexture using a replication master prepared by ultrafast-laser microtexturing process. No additional coatings on conducting PDMS are required to achieve water contact angles greater than 161°. The conductivity can be controlled by changing the percent MWCNT added to PDMS and at a bulk loading of 4.4 wt% we report a conductivity improvement over pure PDMS by a factor of more than 1011 with electrical resistivity ρ = 761 Ω cm. This combined behavior of a conductive, superhydrophobic nanocomposite has exciting applications for allowing a new class of enclosures providing EMI shielding, water repellency and sensing to provide built-in temperature feedback. The effect of temperature on the nanocomposite was investigated and a negative temperature coefficient of resistance (−0.037 Ω/K) similar to that of a thermistor was observed.