Abstract
Superhydrophobic surfaces and surface coatings are of high interest for many applications in everyday life including non-wetting and low-friction coatings as well as functional clothing. Manufacturing of these surfaces is intricate since superhydrophobicity requires structuring of surfaces on a nano- to microscale. This delicate surface structuring makes most superhydrophobic surfaces very sensitive to abrasion and renders them impractical for real-life applications. In this paper we present a transparent fluorinated polymer foam that is synthesized by a simple one-step photoinitiated radical polymerization. We term this material “Fluoropor”. It possesses an inherent nano-/microstructure throughout the whole bulk material and is thus insensitive to abrasion as its superhydrophobic properties are not merely due to a thin-layer surface-effect. Due to its foam-like structure with pore sizes below the wavelength of visible light Fluoropor appears optically transparent. We determined contact angles, surface energy, wear resistance and Vickers hardness to highlight Fluoropor’s applicability for real-word applications.
Highlights
Transparent, superhydrophobic surfaces are of high interest especially for functional coatings
Fluoropor is made via radical polymerization in a one-step procedure with foam-like structuring just below the threshold of light scattering resulting in optical transparency of the material
We achieved the formation of superhydrophobic transparent polymer foam “Fluoropor” through light-induced polymerization of fluorinated perfluoropolyether methacrylates in a non-solvent and an emulsifying agent
Summary
Fluorolink MD700 was purchased from Acota (United Kingdom), 3-(methacryloyloxypropyl) dimethylchlorosilane, 3-(mercaptopropyl)triethoxysilane, methanol, ethanol, methacrylic anhydride, toluene, cyclohexanol, acetone and 2-propanol, hydrochloric acid (37%) were purchased from Merck (Germany). 1 H,1 H,2 H,2H-perfluorooctanol was purchased from Apollo Scientific (United Kingdom) and 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone (DMPAP) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Germany). The top layer of the Fluoropor samples was removed after drying to expose the nanostructure due to the polymerization of a non-structured layer on top of the polymerization chamber (see Supplementary Fig. S2) This layer can be removed by regular laboratory cotton wipes in case of thin-layer coatings or by abrasion with sandpaper for thicker substrates. For advancing and receding contact angle measurements by the ARCA program of the instrument, a 5 μL droplet of deionized water was dispensed onto the surface and held in place by the dispenser needle. After 1 min the droplet was expanded to 10 μL and consecutively after 1 min reduced to 5 μL again In this way five receding and five advancing contact angles were measured by evaluation of the video data, in this case the contact angles were determined by the tangent-fit to reduce computing time. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request
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