A facile dip-coating process for preparing highly durable superhydrophobic surface with multi-scale structures on paint films

Superhydrophobic surfaces with multi-scale nano/microstructures have been prepared on epoxy paint surfaces using a feasible dip-coating process. The microstructures with 5–10 μm protuberances were first prepared on epoxy paint surface by sandblast. Then the nanostructures were introduced on the microstructure surface by anchoring 50–100 nm SiO2 particles (nano-SiO2) onto the sandblasted paint surface, which was completed by dip-coating with a nano-SiO2/epoxy adhesive solution (M1). At last the surface was further modified for enhancing hydrophobicity by another dip-coating with a solution of a low surface energy polymer, aminopropyl terminated polydimethylsiloxane (ATPS) modified epoxy adhesive (M2). The water contact angle of the as-prepared samples reached as high as 167.8° and the sliding angle was 7°. The prepared superhydrophobic surface exhibited excellent durability to the high speed scouring test and high stability in neutral and basic aqueous solutions and some common organic solvents. In addition, this method can be adopted to fabricate large scale samples with a good homogeneity of the whole surface at very low cost.

Graphical abstractSuperhydrophobic surfaces were created on an epoxy paint by sandblasting the paint surface to form microstructures (A), followed by anchoring nano-SiO2 on the microstructure surface to form multi-scale structures (B).Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide