Durable and Versatile Liquid-like Surfaces via the Base-Triggered Synthesis of Polysiloxane

Abstract

Coatings with liquid-like repellency to liquids has attracted much attention due to their wide range of applications. However, the current liquid-like coatings are usually very thin in the nanoscale and require of specific substrates for application, which leads to poor durability and much restriction on their applications. Here, we report the fabrication of a liquid-like polysiloxane coating with tunable thicknesses through base-catalyzed rapid hydrolysis and polycondensation among a formula of alkylalkoxysilanes. The transparent liquid-like coating shows negligible contact-angle hysteresis to both water and low-surface-tension oils and can be readily applied on substrates of different types. The coating also presents high thermal and hydrolytic durability, excellent antifouling properties, and low friction coefficient and is self-healable after chemical damage on the surface. The easy and versatile method of fabricating liquid-like coatings with high durability has great potential for practical applications in numerous fields.