Fabrication of Self-Healable, Robust, and Superhydrophobic Nanocomposite Films

Despite the recent advances in nature-inspired superhydrophobic surfaces with multifunctional properties such as self-healing, self-cleaning, antibacterial material, anti-biofouling, and oil-water separation in various industrial applications, there have been very few reports of robust superhydrophobic surfaces fabricated via a low- cost method. Herein, we report a rationally designed, self-healable, robust, and superhydrophobic nanocomposite film, fabricated by a one-step reaction process from a multi-component solution. These superhydrophobic nanocomposite films can be readily fabricated over a large area with high throughput via simple spray coating of the component solution. As the spray-coating materials, we used functionalized hydrophobic silica nanoparticles (hydrophobic-SiO2 NPs) to achieve hierarchical textured structures, and low surface energy. Then, thermal crosslinkers and long hydrocarbon silanes were added to improve the stability and hydrophobicity of the fabricated nanocomposite films. Because of the synergetic effect of the hydrophobic NPs and crosslinked polymeric compounds, the spray-coated superhydrophobic nanocomposite films exhibited excellent superhydrophobicity (static water contact angles > 150 degrees), high transparency (>80%), high stability, and self-healing abilities. Tests confirmed the rationally designed, solution-based spray coating method provides a simple route to construct transparent, robust, and self-healing superhydrophobic surfaces, with high throughput and large area, which can be utilized in various industrial applications, including conventional products and advanced non-wetting surfaces.