The fabrication of superhydrophobic glass fiber-reinforced plastic surfaces with tunable adhesion based on hydrophobic silica nanoparticle aggregates

Abstract

The superhydrophobic glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) surfaces are prepared by spray coating a mixture on GFRP surfaces. The mixture is comprised of EPOLAM resin 2008 (EP2008), EPOLAM curing agent 2008-S (EP2008-S), hydrophobic silica nanoparticles (HSNPs), and acetone. By simply controlling the concentration of HSNPs in the mixture, the tunable adhesive superhydrophobic surfaces can be obtained. The results confirm that the as-prepared samples not only could achieve superhydrophobicity but also present huge differences in adhesive abilities. Noticeably, the superhydrophobic GFRP surfaces can keep the excellent stability in many kinds of solvents for 3 days, such as water (25 °C), toluene, acetone, tetrahydrofuran, and ethanol. In addition, water droplets with different pH (1–14) have similar contact angles and adhesion on the surfaces, indicating that these surfaces are chemical resistant to acid and alkali. Furthermore, after being stored in ambient environment for 6 months, no obvious decrease in water contact angle (CA) was observed. In addition, the damaged surfaces could be restored completely after spray coating again. The results reported herein not only present a simple, efficient, and reproducible method to elaborate the superhydrophobic GFRP surfaces but also benefits in understanding the principle for the fabrication superhydrophobic surfaces with tunable adhesive.