A versatile “3M” methodology to obtain superhydrophobic PDMS-based materials for antifouling applications

Abstract

Fouling, including inorganic, organic, bio-, and composite fouling seriously affects our daily life. To reduce these effects, antifouling strategies including fouling resistance, release, and degrading, have been proposed. Superhydrophobicity, the most widely used characteristic for antifouling that relies on surface wettability, can provide surfaces with antifouling abilities owing to its fouling resistance and/or release effects. PDMS shows valuable and wide applications in many fields, and due to the inherent hydrophobicity, superhydrophobicity can be achieved simply by roughening the surface of pure PDMS or its composites. In this review, we propose a versatile “3M” methodology (materials, methods, and morphologies) to guide the fabrication of superhydrophobic PDMS-based materials for antifouling applications. Regarding materials, pure PDMS, PDMS with nanoparticles, and PDMS with other materials were introduced. The available methods are discussed based on the different materials. Materials based on PDMS with nanoparticles (zero-, one-, two-, and three-dimensional nanoparticles) are discussed systematically as typical examples with different morphologies. Carefully selected materials, methods, and morphologies were reviewed in this paper, which is expected to be a helpful reference for future research on superhydrophobic PDMS-based materials for antifouling applications.

Imidazolium‐based ionic thermoplastic polyurethane with low surface energy and antibacterial activities

“…27 Hydroxyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is an important class of organosilicon compounds, characterized by a reactive hydroxyl group at the end of the main chain. 28 The synthesis of PDMS/polyurethane block copolymers using PDMS as soft chain segments can endow polyurethane with lower surface energy. [29][30][31] Imidazolium diols, because of their possession of two hydroxyl groups, are capable of forming stronger interactions with bacterial cell membranes, thereby enhancing the bacterial effect of imidazolium diols.…”

“…Hydroxyl‐terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is an important class of organosilicon compounds, characterized by a reactive hydroxyl group at the end of the main chain 28 . The synthesis of PDMS/polyurethane block copolymers using PDMS as soft chain segments can endow polyurethane with lower surface energy 29–31 .…”

Superhydrophobic Waterborne Epoxy Composite Coating with Good Mechanical Properties, Icing Resistance, Self-Cleaning Properties, and Corrosion Resistance

“…After years of exploration, people have been able to obtain superhydrophobic coatings through various methods. Common methods for preparing superhydrophobic materials include electrochemical deposition, , electrospinning, electrostatic spraying, CVD, LBL, , phase separation, photolithography, etc. However, most of these methods are not suitable for large-scale application in the corrosion protection industry due to cost reasons …”

Preparation and performance of random- and oriented-fiber membranes with core–shell structures via coaxial electrospinning

“…Grasl et al (Grasl et al, 2021) tried to use thermoplastic polyurethane (PUR) and polylactic acid (PLLA) to prepare axial, circumferential, and randomly arranged fiber prostheses by electrospinning and found that different fiber structures had different mechanical properties, and even vascular prostheses with good mechanical properties comparable to those of natural blood vessels could be obtained by adjusting the fiber structure. A vascular graft requires good antiplatelet properties, and the materials must possess a good antifouling ability (Yang Lei et al, 2021;He et al, 2022). Therefore, materials are required to have proper hydrophilicity.…”