Super-hydrophobicity and oleophobicity of silicone rubber modified by CF4 radio frequency plasma

Owing to excellent electric properties, silicone rubber (SIR) has been widely employed in outdoor insulator. For further improving its hydrophobicity and service life, the SIR samples are treated by CF4 radio frequency (RF) capacitively coupled plasma. The hydrophobic and oleophobic properties are characterized by static contact angle method. The surface morphology of modified SIR is observed by atom force microscope (AFM). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is used to test the variation of the functional groups on the SIR surface due to the treatment by CF4 plasma. The results indicate that the static contact angle of SIR surface is improved from 100.7° to 150.2° via the CF4 plasma modification, and the super-hydrophobic surface of modified SIR, which the corresponding static contact angle is 150.2°, appears at RF power of 200 W for a 5 min treatment time. It is found that the super-hydrophobic surface ascribes to the coaction of the increase of roughness created by the ablation action and the formation of [-SiFx(CH3)2−x-O-]n (x = 1, 2) structure produced by F atoms replacement methyl groups reaction, more importantly, the formation of [-SiF2-O-]n structure is the major factor for super-hydrophobic surface, and it is different from the previous studies, which proposed the fluorocarbon species such as C-F, C-F2, C-F3, CF-CFn, and C-CFn, were largely introduced to the polymer surface and responsible for the formation of low surface energy.

Research highlights▶ Surface treatment of silicone rubber insulator by CF4 low-temperature plasma. ▶ Nonpolar fluoric functional groups were introduced onto the sample's surface. ▶ Surface micro-topography was changed to form nano-scale concave-convex structure. ▶ The two factors dramatically improve the surface hydrophobicity and oleophobicity.