Designing superhydrophobic surface based on fluoropolymer–silica nanocomposite via RAFT‐mediated polymerization‐induced self‐assembly

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surfaces (SHS) find versatile applications as coatings due to their very high water‐repellency, self‐cleaning, and anti‐icing properties. This investigation describes the preparation of a SHS from surfactant‐free hybrid fluoropolymer latex. In this case, reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was adopted to prepare a copolymer of 4‐vinyl pyridine (4VP) and vinyl triethoxysilane (VTES), where the pyridine units were quaternized to make the copolymer soluble in water. The copolymer was further used as a macro‐RAFT agent to polymerize 2,2,2‐trifluoroethyl methacrylate (TFEMA) in a surfactant‐free emulsion via polymerization‐induced self‐assembly (PISA). The macro‐RAFT agent contained a small amount of VTES as co‐monomer which was utilized to graft silica nanoparticles (SNPs) onto the P(TFEMA) spheres. The film prepared using the nanocomposite latex exhibited a nano‐structured surface as observed by SEM and AFM analyses. Surface modification of the film with fluorinated trichlorosilane produced an SHS with a water contact angle (WCA) of 151.5°. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018, 56, 266–275

Recent Studies on Fluorinated Silica Nanometer-Sized Particles

“…Chakrabarty and co-workers also synthesized F-SiNPs by employing a top-down method [33]. Initially, a water soluble macro- reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) agent, containing triethoxysilane, was prepared and then utilized to make a fluorinated polymer in a surfactant-free emulsion by means of polymerization-induced self-assembly.…”

“…Macro-RAFT agent and fluorinated polymer prepared by Chakrabarty et al Adapted from [33], with permission from John Wiley and Sons, 2019.…”

“…Process used to prepare a superhydrophobic nanosilica composite. Reprinted with permission from [33], with permission from John Wiley and Sons, 2019.…”

RAFT‐vermittelte polymerisationsinduzierte Selbstorganisation (PISA)

“…Das gleiche Kernpolymer wurde für die Bildung von PMAA‐ b ‐PTEFMA‐ und PMAA‐ b ‐PBzMA‐ b ‐PTFEMA‐Partikeln verwendet. PTFEMA wurde ebenfalls for the Herstellung von SHS ausgewählt . Ein Copolymer aus 4‐Vinylpyridin (4VP) und Vinyltriethoxysilan (VTES), in dem die 4VP‐Einheiten quaternisiert worden waren, wurde für die Emulsionspolymerisation von TFEMA verwendet.…”

Hydrophobicity of Polyacrylate Emulsion Film Enhanced by Introduction of Nano-SiO2 and Fluorine

“…Being widely used in aircraft, functional smart coating, building, navigation, textile, and many other fields, hydrophobic material has attracted considerable attention in recent years [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Due to excellent film appearance, high gloss, good mechanical properties, and ideal adhesive properties with a wide variety of substance, acrylate polymer latex is the most popular coating material [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”