Hybrid Hydrocarbon/Fluorocarbon Nanoparticle Coatings for Environmentally Friendly Omniphobic Surfaces

Abstract

The release of fluorocarbons (FCs) into the environment is a growing problem for the chemical industry. Fluorocarbons have been observed in increasing amounts across a range of different locations worldwide on account of environmental release of polymers, consumer products, and a range of other sources. These compounds show long biological half-lives and have been linked to a number of negative toxicological effects. As such, their use should be restricted and eliminated where possible. In this paper, we have shown that the amount of fluorocarbon in omniphobic coatings formed from carboxylate-functionalized nanoparticles can be reduced by as much as 70% without compromising properties such as contact angle hysteresis (CAH) or sliding angle (SA). This reduction is made possible using approaches involving adsorbing hybrid hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon carboxylate chains onto commercially available aluminum oxide nanoparticles. The carboxylates are either coadsorbed onto the same particles, referred to as chemically mixed (CM), or attached to different particles, which we have referred to as physically mixed (PM). Both of these types of surface show enhanced omniphobicity compared to coatings that had been functionalized by the same amount of the fluorinated carboxylate but did not contain any carboxylates bearing hydrocarbon chains. In addition, the sliding properties of synthetic feces on these surfaces were tested in order to investigate the potential applications of this methodology. Similarly, it was observed that the amount of fluorocarbon in the coatings could be substantially reduced without significantly increasing the sliding angle of the mixture on the surface.

Improved Coarse-Grained Model for Nanoparticles Based on the Martini Force Field and Its Application in Molecular Dynamics Simulation on Gel Ink

“…The effective range of the nonbonded force is restricted by the cutoff radius r c , which takes the default value of 1.2 nm in Martini 2.2. 58 Consequently, the mass (m s *, g•mol −1 ) of each C1 s * bead can be computed from (2) and the mass (m c *, g•mol −1 ) of the C1 c * bead is determined as (3) All beads in the NP model are connected with bonds, and each surface bead has six bonds. All bonds are described by a harmonic potential U bond (r ij ) (4) where the equilibrium distance r bond is set to σ R + σ min for bonds between surface beads and (d − σ R )/2 for bonds between surface and core beads and the force constant K bond is magnified to 8 times the default value set for C1 beads in the Martini 2.2 FF, i.e., 10 4 kJ•mol −1 •nm −2 .…”

“…Nanoparticles (NPs), at size scales larger than individual atoms or molecules but much smaller than bulk materials, present considerably different physical and chemical properties from the bulk. The nanoscale condensed matter has been widely researched and applied in the fields of chemicals, , medicine, , materials, , energy, and so on in the past three decades. However, agglomeration for NPs happens quite easily in the processes of preparing and using, especially in liquid media wherein NPs have less physical restraint.…”

Research progress on eco-friendly superhydrophobic materials in environment, energy and biology

“…Carbon-based materials are often used to prepare superhydrophobic materials because of their low surface energy, outstanding chemical stability, low cost and environmental protection, 88,89 such as candle soot, 90,91 carbon nanotubes (CNT), 92,93 multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), 94–96 graphene, 97–99 and nanodiamond. 100,101…”

“…4.2.1 Carbon-based materials. Carbon-based materials are often used to prepare superhydrophobic materials because of their low surface energy, outstanding chemical stability, low cost and environmental protection, 88,89 such as candle soot, 90,91 carbon nanotubes (CNT), 92,93 multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), [94][95][96] graphene, [97][98][99] and nanodiamond. 100,101 The layered carbon nanostructure of candle soot provides roughness, which makes it appear superhydrophobic with a WCA greater than 1601.…”

A scalable, eco-friendly ultralow-temperature approach to forming Al2O3 water-repellent cotton coatings via UV photo-annealing

“…10,11 In an attempt to provide a more scalable process, researchers have investigated both sol-gel based methods, in which textiles are soaked in an aluminum based sol and heated to form the alumina coated textiles, and various coatings comprised of alumina nanoparticles functionalized with organic ligands. [12][13][14][15] While these approaches are more scalable than an ALD approach, there are drawbacks including the use of a microwave reactor, heating requirements up to 160-170 1C, and the need for additional organic additives and ligands including ethyl acetoacetate and sodium stearate to produce the final hydrophobic textile coatings.…”