Superhydrophobic Films Fabricated by Electrospraying Poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) Diblock Copolymers

Abstract

We present the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces by electrospraying structure controlled poly(methyl methacrylate-bromine) (PMMA-Br) homopolymer and degree of fluorination controlled poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) (PMMA-b-PDFMA) copolymers synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The flow rate has great effects on the surface hydrophobicity of PMMA50.6, and superhydrophobic surface was obtained at a higher flow rate of 5 μL/min. For fluorinated diblock copolymers, superhydrophobic surfaces can be obtained by electrospraying PMMA50.6-b-PDFMA0.8 and PMMA147.9-b-PDFMA17.5 at the selected flow rates. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) detections reveal that, during the film formation, more hydrophobic surfaces would be fabricated due to the surface segregations of C–C and C–H groups with THF as solvent instead of C–O–C═O group with DMF as solvent. This investigation may be of great value in fabricating superhydrophobic polymer materials.