Self‐Healing Superhydrophobic Surfaces: Healing Principles and Applications

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surfaces have already been applied in anti‐fouling, water‐oil separation, liquid transportation, etc. Surfaces can be defined as superhydrophobic surfaces once they can support a water droplet with its spherical shape maintained and accompanied by an apparent contact angle larger than 150° and a rolling‐off angle below 10°. Such water repellent property is achieved by the synergetic action of hierarchical structures and the low‐surface energy of the substances constructing the surface. Structures with high aspect ratio always perform good superhydrophobicity. However, they are usually with poor mechanical stability. Since durability is one of the essential factors for practical use, exploiting robust superhydrophobic surfaces has attracted tremendous interest. During the past decade, great effort has been made in developing self‐healing superhydrophobic surfaces to improve the potential practice and broaden the application fields. An overview of the recent development of self‐healing superhydrophobic surfaces is provided in this review. The focus here is particularly on the fabrication process based on specific healing mechanisms and possible applications. Finally, an outlook on future fabrication techniques for durable superhydrophobic surfaces is presented.

Trends in Chemical Wood Surface Improvements and Modifications: A Review of the Last Five Years

“…Consequently, attention should be given to coatings that could combine superhydrophobicity with other important properties. As a result of their precise micro-/nanoscale architectures, superhydrophobic coatings tend to be fragile and lose their superhydrophobicity once subjected to mechanical wear [258]. Many workers studied the effect of sandpaper abrasion on the hydrophobicity of their coatings, which almost always resulted in a consequent decrease in the water contact angle.…”

Sunlight Recovering the Superhydrophobicity of a Femtosecond Laser-Structured Shape-Memory Polymer

“…Apart from this strategy, the self-healing function of organisms in nature provides a more miraculous solution for prolonging the lifespan of superhydrophobic surfaces. , In particular, the superhydrophobic micro/nanostructures of the nature plants can re-grow by harvesting energy from sunlight. In the past few years of study, it has been revealed that the self-healing property of the artificial superhydrophobic surfaces can be realized either by the releasing surface chemistry or the reforming surface micro/nanostructures. − The former method can be easily realized by storing the low-surface-energy materials inside the hierarchical micro/nanostructures and then releasing them onto the damaged surface during the self-healing process, − while the latter method can be carried out by regenerating the hierarchical micro-/nanostructures again under an external environment, − which is comparatively difficult. Although some advances have been achieved for the latter method, there are still some problems.…”

Near-Infrared-Light-Assisted Self-Healing Graphene-Thermopolyurethane Composite Films

“…Among them, intrinsic SHSMs designate a wide variety of systems with autonomous or induced healing ability, which requires an external stimulus, including light [ 15 ], thermal or temperature [ 16 ], laser beam [ 17 ], magnetic [ 18 ], chemical [ 19 ], electricity [ 20 ] or catalytic agent [ 21 ], and can executed itself to heal after damaged. At present, many research groups have been actively engaged in the research of SHSMs [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”