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SUPERHYDROPHOBICITY

Multilevel robustness

Nature Materials volume 17, pages 298–300 (2018)Cite this article

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A combination of hard, soft and nanoscale organic components results in robust superhydrophobic surfaces that can withstand mechanical abrasion and chemical oxidation, and exhibit excellent substrate adhesion.

Superhydrophobic surfaces, on which water beads up and rolls away with very little adhesion1, have generated a broad range of interest because of their promising use in self-cleaning2, antifouling3, anti-icing4, drag reduction5 and oil–water separation6 applications. However, their practical implementation has been limited by the need for resistance to physical abrasion, erosion, chemical exposure, high temperatures and ultraviolet radiation. Moreover, these materials should display good substrate adhesion and be easy to manufacture. Studies using ceramic coatings7, candle soot templates8, metallic nanonails9 or initiated chemical vapour deposition (iCVD)10 have reported surfaces with some of these characteristics. Yet a coating that simultaneously retains all of these properties has proven out of reach.

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Fig. 1: Multicomponent superhydrophobic coating.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Henri-Louis Girard, Sami Khan & Kripa K. Varanasi

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  1. Henri-Louis Girard
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  2. Sami Khan
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  3. Kripa K. Varanasi
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Correspondence to Kripa K. Varanasi.

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Girard, HL., Khan, S. & Varanasi, K.K. Multilevel robustness. Nature Mater 17, 298–300 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0051-3

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