Research Article

Ultra-Durable and Transparent Self-Cleaning Surfaces by Large-Scale Self-Assembly of Hierarchical Interpenetrated Polymer Networks

Nanotechnology Research Laboratory, Research School of Engineering, Research School of Engineering, and §Laboratory of Advanced Biomaterials, Research School of Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2016, 8 (21), pp 13615–13623
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b03414
Publication Date (Web): May 20, 2016
Copyright © 2016 American Chemical Society

Abstract

Abstract Image

In nature, durable self-cleaning surfaces such as the Lotus leaf rely on the multiscale architecture and cohesive regenerative properties of organic tissue. Real-world impact of synthetic replicas has been limited by the poor mechanical and chemical stability of the ultrafine hierarchical textures required for attaining a highly dewetting superhydrophobic state. Here, we present the low-cost synthesis of large-scale ultradurable superhydrophobic coatings by rapid template-free micronano texturing of interpenetrated polymer networks (IPNs). A highly transparent texture of soft yielding marshmallow-like pillars with an ultralow surface energy is obtained by sequential spraying of a novel polyurethane-acrylic colloidal suspension and a superhydrophobic nanoparticle solution. The resulting coatings demonstrate outstanding antiabrasion resistance, maintaining superhydrophobic water contact angles and a pristine lotus effect with sliding angles of below 10° for up to 120 continuous abrasion cycles. Furthermore, they also have excellent chemical- and photostability, preserving the initial performance upon more than 50 h exposure to intense UVC light (254 nm, 3.3 mW cm–2), 24 h of oil contamination, and highly acidic conditions (1 M HCl). This sprayable polyurethane-acrylic colloidal suspension and surface texture provide a rapid and low-cost approach for the substrate-independent fabrication of ultradurable transparent self-cleaning surfaces with superior abrasion, chemical, and UV-resistance.

Supporting Information


The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b03414.

  • Supplementary SEMs, schematics, optimizations, optical photographs, and wetting-thermomechanical analysis (PDF)

  • M1, Self-Assembly of Marshmallow-like Nano microstructures (AVI)

  • SM2, Superhydrophobicity with < 1° SA (AVI)

  • M3, Finger-wipe stability test (AVI)

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Article Views: 2,037 Times
Received 21 March 2016
Date accepted 11 May 2016
Published online 20 May 2016
Published in print 1 June 2016
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