Robust superhydrophobic materials with outstanding durability fabricated by epoxy adhesive-assisted facile spray method

Abstract

Superhydrophobic materials are promising next-generation waterproof materials due to their excellent self-cleaning, antifouling and additional capabilities. Herein, the superhydrophobic materials with excellent comprehensive performance were developed via a simple, low-cost, environmental, and scalable spray method with epoxy adhesive assistance. The epoxy adhesive enhanced the adhesion strength between spray coating and substrates significantly. Consequently, various properties of superhydrophobic coatings were improved greatly. The as-prepared superhydrophobic surfaces exhibited excellent mechanical durability. The water contact angle maintained unchanged basically and sliding angle only increased slightly even though sandpaper abrasion distance had extended to 2100 cm or tape-peeling test had reached 30 cycles. Moreover, the strong water repellence retained even after 72 h immersion in strong acid/alkali, 1 h treatment upon 280 °C, and 7 days exposure under 254 nm UV light. These indicated that the obtained superhydrophobic materials exhibited outstanding acid, alkali, high temperature, and UV light resistance and stability. Besides, the superhydrophobic materials demonstrated excellent self-cleaning and anti-icing performance. So the synthetic superhydrophobic materials were expected to have a wide range of applications in the industrial production and daily life. More importantly, they could be applied in a variety of harsh environments for long periods of time.