Synthesis of surface modified SiC superhydrophobic coating on stainless steel surface by thermal plasma evaporation method

•New, simple and a minimal time processing route for hydrophobic coating on steel•Discussion on the effect of the different process time on the structure and hydrophobicity•Elucidation of the growth mechanism of the as-grown nanostructures

We describe a technique to fabricate superhydrophobic surface on stainless steel substrate with very short processing time. The process has been optimized to synthesize good quality hydrophobic coating by varying the processing time. The surface morphology of the as-formed nanostructures was observed using scanning electron microscopy. The core-shell structures have been confirmed from the transmission electron microscopy analysis. The selected area diffraction pattern in correlation with the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed the presence of crystalline silicon carbide core in the as-formed nanostructures. Additionally, the infrared and X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy data confirmed the presence of surface modified silicon dioxide shell layer. The hydrophobic property of the coating has also been tailored and it was found that the maximum dewetting angle of de-ionized water, on the prepared surface enhanced from 86.3° to 150.8°. The origin of the superhydrophobicity of these coating are identified as (1) surface morphology and (2) surface functionalization.

Graphical abstractSuperhydrophobic behaviour of the SiC-surface modified SiO2 composite thin film on stainless steel surface.Download high-res image (238KB)Download full-size image