A facile method to prepare super-hydrophobic surfaces on silicone rubbers

Abstract

Fabricating large-scale super-hydrophobic surfaces for commercial applications is challenging due to certain limitations. In this paper, a simple and inexpensive method is developed to fabricate super-hydrophobic surfaces on silicone rubbers. Rough microstructures were prepared on the mould's inner surfaces and then sample super-hydrophobic surfaces on silicone rubbers with different surface roughness were achieved using the standard moulding process. Furthermore, the effects of roughness on the wettability were investigated. The results showed that by controlling the roughness, the fabricated surfaces exhibited a static contact angle of 150.9°and a sliding angle of 8°. Finally, the property of hydrophobicity recovery for the silicone-rubber samples was also studied. The surfaces of the samples could recover well after a sand-blasting experiment. The proposed method is low-cost, environmentally friendly and suggests promising industrial applications. Keywords: thin films, coatings, chemical techniques, surface properties Izdelava obse`nih superhidrofobnih povr{in za komercialne namene je zaradi dolo~enih omejitev zahtevna. V~lanku je razvit preprost in poceni na~in za izdelavo superhidrofobne povr{ine na silikonskih gumah. Grobe mikrostrukture so bile pripravljene na notranjih povr{inah kalupa in nato je bila dose`ena vzor~na superhidrofobna povr{ina na silikonski gumi z razli~no hrapavo povr{ino z uporabo standardnega postopka modeliranja. Nadalje so bili raziskani u~inki hrapavosti na omo~ljivost. Rezultati so pokazali, da so s krmiljenjem hrapavosti izdelane povr{ine razstavljene pod stati~nim kontaktnim kotom 150.9°in drsnim kotom 8°. Nazadnje je bila preu~evana tudi lastnost okrevanja hidrofobnosti vzorcev silikonskih gum. Povr{ine vzorcev se lahko dobro obnovijo tudi po poskusu s peskanjem. Predlagana metoda je poceni, okolju prijazna in ka`e obetavne mo`nosti apliciranja v procese v industriji.

A Review on Fabrication Methods and Research Progress of Superhydrophobic Silicone Rubber Materials

“…Jin et al. [ 83 ] applied an effective method to spray a layer of silicon carbide particles inside the mold and epoxy resin as adhesive, so as to construct a layer of microstructure on the inner surface of the mold. Subsequently, the liquid silicone rubber is put into the mold.…”