Robust superhydrophobic anti-corrosion coating with self-cleaning and anti-fouling

Superhydrophobic materials have a wide application prospect because of their non-wettability, low surface energy and excellent repulsion to water, so that water droplets can easily roll off the surface without any adhesion. However, poor mechanical stability, complex preparation process, high price, difficult to large-scale preparation and other problems hinder its popularization. Therefore, we developed a corrosion-resistant and robust superhydrophobic coating based on PFDTES@ Al2O3 NPs and epoxy resin through a simple spraying technique. The contact angle and sliding angle of the coating are 153.8 f 0.6 degrees and 3.8 f 0.5 degrees, respectively. The results of mechanical stability and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) show that the coating has excellent mechanical stability, which can withstand 135 sandpaper abrasion cycles and 180 tape-peeling cycles. The low-frequency modulus (|Z|0.01Hz) and Rct of the coating are increased by 8 and 9 orders of magnitude, respectively, indicating that the coating can play a very good role as a protective barrier. Additionally, the coating has also demonstrated anti-fouling properties against various liquids (dyed water, black tea, Coca cola, coffee, milk, Melinda soda), good self-cleaning properties and a wide range of substrate applicability, and we believe that the coating has a bright future application prospect.