Preparation and properties of high abrasion resistant superhydrophobic coating on the PCB

Abstract

Abrasion resistance has become the bottleneck restricting the application of superhydrophobic surface. It is extremely necessary to design superhydrophobic surface with high abrasion resistance in practical application environment. However, the coexistence of superhydrophobic property and abrasion resistance is a difficult challenge to balance. In this study, a superhydrophobic coating with high abrasion resistance was obtained in combination with three gradients of roughness/wettability, physical adhesion and chemical coupling on the printed circuit board (PCB) surface. The realization of high abrasion resistance of the coating mainly depended on controlling the curing time of the adhesive layer and the way of air injection, so that the micro-nano structure could achieve the effect of semi-embedded. The PCB surface still maintained superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle higher than 150° after a series of tests such as 800 cycles of tape peeling, 400 cycles of knife scraping, 2600 cm of sandpaper abrasion, 425 g of falling sand impacting, and 60 min of water impacting, which fully proved the high abrasion resistance of the coating and the strong adhesion between the coating and the substrate. The preparation process is high efficiency and suitable for large area application, which will provide an extremely valuable idea for improving the waterproof of PCB and promote the true applications of superhydrophobic coating in many fields.