Design and fabrication of vapor-induced superhydrophobic surfaces obtained from polyethylene wax and silica nanoparticles in hierarchical structures

Abstract

The present work reported a simple and effective approach to fabricate a low-cost, self-cleaning and mechanically durable superhydrophobic coating. The coating was prepared by dip-coating certain substrates in an ethyl acetate suspension of silica nanoparticles (SiO 2 ), hydroxyl acrylic resin, crosslinking agent and polyethylene wax (PEW). Through the control of the cooling and drying process, vapor-induced PEW micro-clusters were formed on the surfaces during the evaporation of ethyl acetate, and uniform carpet-like hierarchical structures were finally obtained by properly adjusting the dosage of PEW. Under the synergistic effect of hydrophobic SiO 2 nanoparticles and PEW micro-clusters, the composite coating exhibited a remarkable superhydrophobicity with a contact angle of 163 AE 5 with 25 wt% content of PEW, as well as preeminent self-cleaning properties against various food liquids.Moreover, the coating still maintained its surface cleanliness when immersed in the cyclohexane or hexadecane, indicating a superior self-cleaning property against solvent-contamination. The mechanical durability test showed that the coating still kept its excellent water repellency after fairly intensive knifescratching, tape peeling and 25 cycles of sandpaper abrasion under 100 g of loading, indicating a quite admirable mechanical durability. The facile preparation and high-performance of the coating make it quite suitable for manufacture on a large scale, which is favorable for the development of superhydrophobic coatings.

Facile stearoyl chloride grafted cotton filter fabric and its application in oil-water separation

“…One of the oil-water separation way is to fabricate hydrophobic membrane that only oil could permeate but water would be hold. There are various eco-friendly hydrophobic materials, such as natural waxes [Toruna et al 2019;Guan et al 2018], fatty acids [Heale et al 2018;Dong et al 2019], proteins Shome et al 2019], cellulose derives [Huang et al 2018;Guo et al 2016], biomass and agricultural waste [Anitha et al 2018;Shishodia et al 2019]. Besides, nanoparticles with low surface energy such SiO 2 [Wang wt al.…”

One-Step Electrodeposition of Superhydrophobic Coating on 316L Stainless Steel

“…Superhydrophobicity confers to the materials some features, such as anti-icing, anti-corrosion, anti-scaling, that are very important in many engineering applications, e.g., aerospace, marine, biomedical, civil, etc. Moreover, superhydrophobic surfaces can also have a self-cleaning ability [5,6], i.e., dust/particles can be easily removed with rolling water drops, which is not the case on very smooth surfaces. This feature can have important consequences whether the self-cleaning material is used for architectonical applications, reducing frequent and expensive maintenance or cleaning procedures.…”

Heat-Treated Micronized Polyethylene Powder for Efficient Oil/Water Separating Filters

“…As an example, polyethylene (PE) is a hydrophobic polymer, with a WCA of ~100° for a flat polymer layer deposited on a flat surface [ 40 ]. Owing to its compatibility with many systems, it has been reported numerously for the fabrication of superhydrophobic coatings [ 33 , 41 , 42 ]. The heat-treatment of PE powder to produce a hydrophobic film has been reported previously [ 25 ].…”