LARGE-AREA FABRICATION OF A HARD AND WEAR-RESISTANT SUPERHYDROPHOBIC MATERIAl

Different types of superhydrophobic materials have been fabricated by constructing surfaces with low surface energy and micro-nanostructures, most of which are coatings. Due to the fragile rough structure of the coating, it is very easy to lose its superhydrophobic properties when exposed to friction, corrosion, high temperature, and other effects of the external environment. This has largely hindered the large-scale application of superhydrophobic materials. Here, a rigid superhydrophobic material with polyurethane foam as the substrate, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanoparticles as the matrix phase, and carbon nanotubes as the reinforcing phase have been reported. The fabricated material showed excellent superhydrophobicity (157 ∘ ± 1 ∘ ) and robustness. The contact angle of the superhydrophobic material surface remained above 150 ∘ and the rolling angle below 10 ∘ after 1000 cycles (distance is 40[Formula: see text]m) of abrasion using 800 # sandpaper at pressure of 5[Formula: see text]kPa.