Anti-corrosion and anti-fouling superhydrophobic silicone coating with continuous micro/nano structure

Abstract

At present, silicone superhydrophobic coatings are attracting much attention in the fields of anti-corrosion and antifouling, so they have a broad application prospect. In this paper, superhydrophobic surfaces with continuous micro/nano structure were prepared on various substrates using a simple blending method similar to the conventional preparation of RT vulcanized silicone rubber. The difference was that the new kinds of crosslinker (MF-S) was synthesized by 3-glycidyloxypropyltrimethocysilane and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. Linear fluorinated copolymer (L-SF) was prepared by free radical polymerization of 3-mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane (MPTES) and 1H, 1H, 7H-dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA). And the condensation reaction with α, ω-dihydroxypodimethylsiloxane (PDMS), tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and inorganic nanoparticles constructed superhydrophobic coatings with continuous micro- and nanostructures. The coating had a water contact angle (WCA) of up to 162° and a sliding angle (SA) as low as 2°. What's more, the WCA of the coating remained around 160° and the SA stayed below 5° after sandpaper abrasion, UV irradiation, and hot and cold treatment. The adhesion of the coating on different substrates was higher than 2 MPa. Due to the synergistic effect of the superhydrophobicity of the coating and the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 nanoparticles, the coating achieves an antimicrobial efficiency of 97.8 % against Staphylococcus aureus. The synergistic effect of the air layer and the densification of the coating resulted in the electrical impedance modulus at the lowest frequency of the coating remaining two orders of magnitude higher than that of the bare carbon steel plate after several days of immersion in sodium chloride solution. The work showed great potential for application in anti-corrosion and anti-fouling coatings.