Issue 7, 2016

Environmentally-safe and transparent superhydrophobic coatings

Abstract

The bioinspired field of superhydrophobicity has almost universally deployed environmentally-detrimental approaches relying on organic solvents and fluorinated compounds to generate liquid-repellent surfaces, thus severely limiting application at industrial scales. Recent water-borne methods have reduced the use of volatile organic compounds, but these methods often rely on either fluorinated chemistries (to lower surface energy) or charge-stabilization (to suspend roughness-enhancing particle fillers). An entirely water-based and fluorine-free superhydrophobic formulation has been developed from hydrophilic titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles and polyolefin copolymers, without additional surfactants or charge-stabilization. The commercially-available ingredients are combined in a single-step, substrate-independent, wet-process application to deliver an ultra-simple, semitransparent coating which is attractive for large-area, fluid-barrier surface treatments. The coating constituents are environmentally-safe and FDA-approved, overcoming a nontrivial hurdle in the scalable development of sustainable fluid management technologies.

Graphical abstract: Environmentally-safe and transparent superhydrophobic coatings

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Nov 2015
Accepted
03 Dec 2015
First published
03 Dec 2015

Green Chem., 2016,18, 2185-2192

Author version available

Environmentally-safe and transparent superhydrophobic coatings

J. E. Mates, R. Ibrahim, A. Vera, S. Guggenheim, J. Qin, D. Calewarts, D. E. Waldroup and C. M. Megaridis, Green Chem., 2016, 18, 2185 DOI: 10.1039/C5GC02725J

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