Long-lived superhydrophobic surfaces

Abstract

Prolonging the lifetime of superhydrophobic surfaces is required so that the materials can be used practically. Thus, great efforts have been made in designing surfaces that maintain micro-and nanoscaled hierarchical structures and low surface-energy property, which are necessary for superhydrophobicity, during use. It was demonstrated that improving surface mechanical strength to increase wear resistance helps maintain hierarchical roughness, retarding the loss of superhydrophobicity. Additionally, designing self-healing materials that can recover their structure and/ or properties when damaged has been suggested and demonstrated to sustain the superhydrophobicity of surfaces. This review focuses on recent advances in developing mechanically durable, corrosionresistant, self-healing, and easily repairable superhydrophobic surfaces, which will enable prolonged lifetime of superhydrophobicity for practical applications in the future.

Superhydrophobic surfaces for corrosion protection: a review of recent progresses and future directions

“…Nevertheless, because of their delicate porous structures required for superhydrophobicity, most of these surfaces do not have high mechanical durability. 52 When damaged by external forces, their surface hydrophobicity could be easily reduced. Integrity of the coatings may be also damaged, which causes defects, such as cracks, and results in decreased protectiveness against corrosion.…”

“…52 Manna et al reported a unique example of self-healing superhydrophobic surface based on chemical crosslinking of branched poly(ethyleneimine) and poly(vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone) multilayers, followed by reaction with hydrophobic n-decylamine molecules. 131 When compressed, the surface lost this hydrophobicity as a result of the damaged microstructures.…”

“…To solve this problem, superhydrophobic microstructures of a much finer scale and/or a much higher aspect ratio were recommended, 102,103 even though this may raise other issues, such as low mechanical durability of the microstructures. 52 According to Zhang and co-workers, superhydrophobic surfaces can also effectively inhibit atmospheric corrosion induced by the deliquescence of salt particles. 68,104 On a horizontal superhydrophobic surface, saline solution from the deliquescent salt can hardly spread and, therefore, remains in a spherical shape until the salt is completely dissolved (Fig.…”

Dual-action smart coatings with a self-healing superhydrophobic surface and anti-corrosion properties

“…When these surface microstructures are in contact with water, an air film can be trapped within them to provide an extra barrier for the substrate materials. This feature has made superhydrophobic surfaces particularly attractive as candidate coating materials with enhanced anti-corrosion performance [10][11][12][13][14] . However, the delicate microstructures required for superhydrophobicity are prone to damage from physical impacts and scratches, which often leads to a decrease in hydrophobicity and to the loss of the additional barrier effect.…”

Robust Flower‐Like TiO2@Cotton Fabrics with Special Wettability for Effective Self‐Cleaning and Versatile Oil/Water Separation

“…[ 13 ] However, the surface roughness would decrease due to the micro/nanostructure destroyed under mechanical forces such as friction, abrasion, which result in the loss of long-lived superhydrophobic surfaces. [14][15][16] Xue and Ma [ 17 ] generalized the approaches to improve the durability of superhydrophobic surfaces mostly focus on the mechanically durable, corrosionresistance, self-healing, and easily repairable. Though great efforts have been made on retarding the loss of superhydrophobicity, it was diffi cult to improve the mechanical stability on fabric surfaces.…”