Facile fabrication of transparent slippery glass coated with nanoscale silicone brushes having self-healing and liquid-like behavior

Abstract

A novel, simple and one-step method is presented for the fabrication of transparent slippery glass by coating nanoscale polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) brushes onto the glass using the heating of fluidic PDMS in an open chamber. The effect of exposing time of glass slide to the PDMS vapor on the water contact angle and sliding angle is studied. The modified glass was characterized with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the water contact angle (WCA). It was shown that the PDMS molecules were tethered to the glass with a nanoscale brushlike structure and a liquid-like property. The prepared sample has a smooth and stable deposited PDMS layer with negligible contact angle hysteresis and therefore good slippery behavior. Macroscopic (preserving slippery nature) and microscopic (AFM) observations on the scratched surface show that the deposited silicone layer has self-healing property and the mechanism of its self-healing is presented. The icephoic, self-cleaning, anti-fouling and water capturing capability of the PDMS-coated glass is studied as well. The modified glass shows self-cleaning property and was successfully used as the cover of a solar cell for utilization in muddy rainy weather.