Superhydrophobic surface on aeronautical materials via the deposition of nanoparticles and a PDMS seal

Abstract

This paper reports a stable superhydrophobic surface on resin composites through the coprecipitation process of hydroxyethyl cellulose and modified Zn-particles, subsequently with the use of PDMS seal. Surface morphologies and chemical compositions are investigated with SEM, EDS, and FT-IR. As expected, the prepared surface has the water repellency with the contact angle of 153° and the sliding angle of 1°, respectively. According to the comparison of different specimens when after the liquid impingement test, it can be reasonably demonstrated that appropriate PDMS seal improves the stability with regard to superhydrophobic surfaces. When superhydrophobic surface is soaked chronically and impinged strongly by water, its water repellency is going to reduce. However, further surface modification introduced by combustion leads to excellent water repellency again. And the sliding angle value of further modified surface is below 1°. The preparation of superhydrophobic surface is also applicable to a paper. This superhydrophobic paper is less flammable than the untreated paper. In addition, the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface exhibits good self-cleaning ability towards avoiding different types of contaminants.