Abstract
High-performance coatings that durably and fully repel liquids are of interest for fundamental research and practical applications. Such coatings should allow for droplet beading, roll off and bouncing, which is difficult to achieve for ultralow surface tension liquids. Here we report a bottom-up approach to prepare super-repellent coatings using a mixture of fluorosilanes and cyanoacrylate. On application to surfaces, the coatings assemble into thin films of locally multi-re-entrant hierarchical structures with very low surface energies. The resulting materials are super-repellent to solvents, acids and bases, polymer solutions and ultralow surface tension liquids, characterized by ultrahigh liquid contact angles (>150°) and negligible roll-off angles (~0°). Furthermore, the coatings are transparent, durable and demonstrate universal liquid bouncing, tailored responsiveness and anti-freezing properties, and are thus a promising alternative to existing synthetic super-repellent coatings.
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Data availability
Data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article (and its Supplementary Information) and from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This research was conducted jointly and funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC grant nos 51703056, 21707031, 21606081, 21527810, 21521063, 21575036, 21307029, 21221003, 21205034 and 21190041), National Key Basic Research Program (project no. 2011CB911000), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (project no. 2016M602402), China Scholarship Council (file no. 201606130022), Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China (project no. 2018JJ3028), Horizon 2020/European Union (grant agreement no. 745676), Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology (project no. CE140100036) and the ARC under the Australian Laureate Fellowship scheme (grant no. FL120100030).
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R.G. and S.P. conceived the ideas and, with the help of W.X., J.J. and F.C., designed and conducted the experiments, and analysed the data. All the authors discussed and interpreted the results and contributed to the writing of the paper.
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Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Video Legends 1–26, Supplementary Figures 1–36, Supplementary Tables 1–3, Supplementary References 1–31
Supplementary Video 1
Hexane drop bouncing on a planar superomniphobic (SOP) substrate
Supplementary Video 2
Pentane drop rolls off a SOP slope of 18°
Supplementary Video 3
Pentane drop rolls off a SOP slope of 37°
Supplementary Video 4
Pentane drop bounces on a SOP woven fabric (low Weber number)
Supplementary Video 5
Pentane drop breaks through the facial SOP coating (medium Weber number)
Supplementary Video 6
Pentane drop bounces on a full SOP coating (medium Weber number)
Supplementary Video 7
Jumping satellite drop of pentane (high Weber number)
Supplementary Video 8
Coalescence of extruded satellite drops of pentane (higher Weber number)
Supplementary Video 9
Continuous impacting of pentane jet
Supplementary Video 10
Bouncing of HF on coated TLC plate
Supplementary Video 11
Bouncing of PVDF solution
Supplementary Video 12
Bouncing of FC-72 at high temperatures
Supplementary Video 13
Bouncing of FC-72 at high atmospheres
Supplementary Video 14
Impact of liquid nitrogen droplet on a coated TLC plate
Supplementary Video 15
Rolling off liquid nitrogen filament on a coated TLC plate
Supplementary Video 16
Impact of liquid nitrogen droplet on a coated print paper
Supplementary Video 17
Wetting of liquid nitrogen on an uncoated TLC plate
Supplementary Video 18
Freezing of water on a five-tier substrate
Supplementary Video 19
Freezing of water on a four-tier substrate
Supplementary Video 20
Freezing of water on a three-tier (microstructure) substrate
Supplementary Video 21
Freezing of water on a three-tier (nanostructure) substrate
Supplementary Video 22
Freezing of water on a two-tier substrate
Supplementary Video 23
Freezing of water on a one-tier (control) substrate
Supplementary Video 24
Impinging water drop on a −20 °C SOP substrate (We = 3)
Supplementary Video 25
Reduced contact time of water droplet with a −20 °C SOP substrate (We = 60)
Supplementary Video 26
Scratch durability testing
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Pan, S., Guo, R., Björnmalm, M. et al. Coatings super-repellent to ultralow surface tension liquids. Nature Mater 17, 1040–1047 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0178-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0178-2
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