Superhydrophobic ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene porous material with self-cleaning ability, long-term stability, and high durability

Abstract

Superhydrophobic self-cleaning of polymer materials is realized based on the formation of micro-nano morphology structures on the surface of the materials usually. However, such surface has poor resistance to mechanical damage and easily wears, and the widespread application is limited. In this work, a superhydrophobic porous material with a self-cleaning function, long-term stability, high durability, and high resistance to mechanical damage was developed based on supercritical fluid micro-foaming and the construction of complex hierarchical micro-nanosized structures in the later stage. The surface of porous sample presents a complex micro-nanosized hierarchical structures with a scale progressive ridge-groove, which increased the water contact angle from 110° to a superhydrophobic contact angle of 156°, decreased the sliding angle to 3.5°, and presented an obvious water repellency. Using the water repellency, self-cleaning function of the porous sample was realized. More importantly, the porous material exhibits superior superhydrophobic stability under long-term strong mechanical damage such as ultrasound, knife scratching, repeated bending, and wire ball scraping, and maintains excellent stability in strong acid/alkali, high and low temperature extreme environments. A stable superhydrophobic high-performance porous material with a self-cleaning function was prepared, and the application of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) porous materials in superhydrophobic field was expanded and spread widely, which provides a certain insight for the preparation of superhydrophobic porous materials with superior durability and strong mechanical damage resistance.