Superhydrophobic polyurethane and silica nanoparticles coating with high transparency and fluorescence

Abstract

A superhydrophobic surface was prepared by spin-coating trimethylsiloxane functionalized SiO 2 (TMS-SiO 2 ) solutions onto a precoated polyurethane (PU) layer. The superhydrophobic coatings showed high stability with time, and the prepared coatings remained superhydrophobicity even after 6 months. Furthermore, the as-prepared surface showed high transparency with a transmittance above 70% in visible light region (400-800 nm). The transition of the composite surface from superhydrophobicity to hydrophilicity can be achieved by increasing the drying temperature. More interestingly, the surface showed excellent fluorescent property by the incorporation of fluorescent Europium (Eu) complex into the surface and without deteriorating the superhydrophobic and transparent properties. It was believed that the superhydrophobic surface with multifunction would broaden the applications of superhydrophobic materials.

A facile approach in fabricating superhydrophobic and superoleophilic poly (vinylidene fluoride) membranes for efficient water–oil separation

“…Finally, the nanoparticles were separated by centrifugation with absolute ethanol for three times and dried at 70°C under vacuum. The modified silica nanoparticles were recorded as SiO 2 ‐TMS …”

A facile dip‐coating approach to prepare SiO2/fluoropolymer coating for superhydrophobic and superoleophobic fabrics with self‐cleaning property

“…It is well known that superhydrophobic/superoleophobic surfaces are usually inspired by many biological materials in nature exhibiting an unusual superhydrophobicity/superoleophobicity and self‐cleaning property, such as lotus leaves, rice leaves, red rose petals, butterfly wings, cicada wings, gecko feet, desert beetle, spider silks, and fish scales . Based on the previous reported literatures, it has been found that the presence of special micro/nanostructures and low‐surface‐energy materials on these surfaces are critical for the formation of the superhydrophobicity/superoleophobicity . To mimic the effect, enormous contributions have been made to the design and fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces via two kinds of approaches: either creating rough structures on low‐surface energy substrates or chemically modifying rough substrates with low‐surface energy materials …”

Permanent superhydrophobic polypropylene nanocomposite coatings by a simple one-step dipping process

“…Polymer coating is a very well established method to obtain new surface properties in polymeric materials and recent reports on the preparation of superhydrophobic polymeric substrates using diverse methodologies show the progress in the preparation of self-cleaning polymer surfaces [24,25,[36][37][38]. In particular, polyolefins have broad industrial applications ranging from packaging to building materials and automotive parts and they are widely used where hydrophobicity and clean surfaces are required.…”