Room-temperature fabrication of TiO2-PHEA nanocomposite coating with high transmittance and durable superhydrophilicity

Abstract

Coatings with high transmittance and superhydrophilicity play an outstanding role in many practical applications such as antifogging, antifouling, self-cleaning, etc. The durability greatly affects their applications. In the current work, TiO2 organic nanocomposite coating with high transmittance and durable superhydrophilicity was prepared via the homogeneous compositing of modified anatase TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) and hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) without any solvent. The curing process of coating and the formation of nanometer rough structure were carried out simultaneously under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation at room temperature. The composite coating exhibited an excellent intrinsic superhydrophilicity (water contact angle less than 3° in 0.45 s), high transmittance (above 90% in the visible wavelength), mechanical robustness, photocatalytic activity, anti-fogging and anti-fouling properties. The superhydrophilicity of the as-prepared nanocomposite coating could last for 330 days in the laboratory environment, which was quite a long time for maintaining the superhydrophilicity of TiO2 coatings in the literature reports. The durable superhydrophilicity is attributed to the enhancement of intrinsic hydrophilicity and the increase of surface roughness. The superhydrophilic TiO2-PHEA nanocomposite coating has a wide application prospect in solar cells, building and automobile antifogging glass, antifogging lens and other fields. The methodology proposed in this work can be applied to the fabrication of new superhydrophilic TiO2-polymeric composite materials using a low-cost, efficient and simple methodology.