Imparting Superhydrophobicity with a Hierarchical Block Copolymer Coating.
Li-Chen ChengJohn W SimonaitisKarim R GadelrabMukarram TahirYi DingAlfredo Alexander-KatzCaroline A RossPublished in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) (2019)
A robust and transparent silica-like coating that imparts superhydrophobicity to a surface through its hierarchical multilevel self-assembled structure is demonstrated. This approach involves iterative steps of spin-coating, annealing, and etching of polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane block copolymer thin films to form a tailored multilayer nanoscale topographic pattern with a water contact angle up to 155°. A model based on the hierarchical topography is developed to calculate the wetting angle and optimize the superhydrophobicity, in agreement with the experimental trends, and explaining superhydrophobicity arising through the combination of roughness at different lengthscales. Additionally, the mechanical robustness and optically passive properties of the resulting hydrophobic surfaces are demonstrated.
Keyphrases
- high resolution
- drug release
- magnetic resonance imaging
- density functional theory
- ionic liquid
- staphylococcus aureus
- computed tomography
- single molecule
- atomic force microscopy
- drug delivery
- smoking cessation
- biofilm formation
- escherichia coli
- mass spectrometry
- cystic fibrosis
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- rare case
- high speed
- dual energy