Robust and self-repairing superamphiphobic coating from all-water-based spray

Abstract

Superamphiphobic surfaces have drawn much attention owning to their significant advantages in interfacial applications. However, the existing preparation strategies are suffering from the complex process, substrate-independent, and copious usage of organic liquids. Moreover, the required high roughness and fairly low surface-energy components are very vulnerable to physical and chemical damages. Thus, it is highly desirable to develop a facile, universal, and environmental friendly method to fabricate robust superamphiphobic surfaces. Herein, an all-water-based spraying aqueous solution of perfluorooctanoic acid and aluminum oxide nanoparticles is formed with the aid of a fluorocarbon surfactant, which is suitable for preparing superamphiphobic coating on various substrates. The obtained coating displays excellent repellence to liquids with surface tensions higher than 27.5 mN/m. Importantly, the superamphiphobic coating still extremely repels those liquids after physical damages, and can withstand rigorous conditions including acid/base attacks, high/low temperatures, UV irradiation, and organic solvent corrosion. Moreover, the coating has a self-repairing ability against O2-plasma etching and the superamphiphobicity can be recovered after high-temperature treatment. The low-cost and environmental-friendly approach may promote the development of superamphiphobic surfaces in practical applications.