Department of Chemistry, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, Staten Island, New York 10314, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2011 Sep;3(9):3508-14. doi: 10.1021/am200741f. Epub 2011 Aug 10.
Fabricating robust superhydrophobic surfaces for commercial applications is challenging as the fine-scale surface features, necessary to achieve superhydrophobicity, are susceptible to mechanical damage. Herein, we report a simple and inexpensive lamination templating method to create superhydrophobic polymer surfaces with excellent abrasion resistance and water pressure stability. To fabricate the surfaces, polyethylene films were laminated against woven wire mesh templates. After cooling, the mesh was peeled from the polymer creating a 3D array of ordered polymer microposts on the polymer surface. The resulting texture is monolithic with the polymer film and requires no chemical modification to exhibit superhydrophobicity. By controlling lamination parameters and mesh dimensions, polyethylene surfaces were fabricated that exhibit static contact angles of 160° and slip angles of 5°. Chemical and mechanical stability was evaluated using an array of manual tests as well as a standard reciprocating abraser test. Surfaces remained superhydrophobic after more than 5500 abrasion cycles at a pressure of 32.0 kPa. In addition, the surface remains dry after immersing into water for 5 h at 55 kPa. This method is environmental friendly, as it employs no solvents or harsh chemicals and may provide an economically viable path to manufacture large areas of mechanically robust superhydrophobic surfaces from inexpensive polymers and reusable templates.
为商业应用制造坚固的超疏水表面具有挑战性，因为实现超疏水性所需的精细表面特征容易受到机械损伤。在此，我们报告了一种简单且廉价的层压模板方法，可制造具有优异耐磨性和水压稳定性的超疏水聚合物表面。为了制造表面，将聚乙烯薄膜层压在编织金属丝网模板上。冷却后，将网格从聚合物上剥离，在聚合物表面上形成有序聚合物微柱的 3D 阵列。所得纹理与聚合物薄膜整体一致，无需化学修饰即可表现出超疏水性。通过控制层压参数和网格尺寸，可以制造出静态接触角为 160°且滑动角为 5°的聚乙烯表面。通过一系列手动测试以及标准往复式研磨机测试评估了化学和机械稳定性。在 32.0 kPa 的压力下，经过超过 5500 次磨损循环后，表面仍保持超疏水性。此外，即使在 55 kPa 下浸入水中 5 小时后，表面仍然保持干燥。该方法环保，因为它不使用溶剂或苛刻的化学物质，并且可以为制造具有成本效益的超疏水表面提供经济可行的途径，这些表面由廉价的聚合物和可重复使用的模板制造而成。
