Liquid-repellent and self-repairing lubricant-grafted surfaces constructed by thiol-ene click chemistry using activated hollow silica as the lubricant reservoir

Abstract

The development of robust, stain-resistant, and self-healing liquid-repellent surfaces is a common aspiration of both consumer and industrial applications, but the existing methods suffer from limitations, such as complicated procedures, weak mechanical durability and substrate dependency. In this work, a lubricant-grafted slippery surface (LGSS) was prepared by grafting vinyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (Vi-PDMS) onto various substrates coated with sulfhydryl-modified hollow mesoporous silica (SH-HMS) through a thiol-ene click reaction. The uniform and intact lubricant layer can effectively decrease the absorption of the polysaccharide and protein, exhibiting superior antifouling properties. Notably, the hollow structure of SH-HMS could significantly increase the oil grafting capacity of the slippery surface from 0.013 g/cm2 to 0.027 g/cm2 compared with the surface constructed by solid silica. By virtue of the strong covalent bond forces between the lubricant oil and surfaces, the obtained LGSS exhibited robust liquid repellency when subjected to high/low temperature, ultraviolet irradiation and water impact. Moreover, the liquid-repellent LGSS exhibited good self-repairing performance owing to the directional migration of the Vi-PDMS chain segment from the hollow capsule to the surface through the mesoporous channels under heating treatment. Therefore, such a newly developed strategy for constructing liquid-repellent coatings on various substrates with self-repairing properties has the potential to promote the advancement of interfacial antifouling materials and exhibit tremendous potential for consumer and industrial applications.