A facile approach to fabricate omniphobic and robust polyurethane coatings for anti-smudge, anti-ink

Abstract

The coatings prepared by current water- and oil-repellent strategies are prominently trapped in fluorinated reagents, and most of these coatings performs poor optical transparency and wear resistance. Herein, we report a facile approach of fabrication highly transparent omniphobic coatings only by using PDMS as a low-surface-tension reagent incorporated into the polyurethane matrix. The resultant smooth polymer-based coating not only exhibits significant repellency to various liquids with surface tensions higher than 20mN/m, but also has excellent self-cleaning performance, allowing cooking oil and pump oil to slide cleanly without leaving traces. It can be easily applied onto various substrates without affecting its remarkable ink repellency, especially to impart striking anti-smudge performance to the fabric. Moreover, water-based and oil-based paints as well as artificial fingerprint liquids tend to contract on the coating surface, thus such surfaces exhibit potential application value in anti-graffiti and anti-fingerprint. It can also effectively protect the substrate from the corrosion of chemical reagents, and it is mechanically durable and wear-resistant, which greatly enhances its practicality. Besides, the market is highly desirable for it's cheap and fluorine-free.