Oil Retention Properties of Elastomer Based Slippery Liquid Infused Surfaces Under Extreme Conditions

Abstract

The novelty of this paper concerns the development of Slippery Liquid Infused Surfaces (SLIPS) designed to maintain their properties under extreme conditions. We present a method to develop large texturized surfaces obtained by mold double replication. Different master mold texturations have been realized through stainless steel laser ablation. Both negative and positive copies of these molds have been tested to widen investigations on structuration geometry. The comparison of two chemical modification techniques with thin fluorinated layers have been done to study their influence in retaining the lubricant. We investigate lubricant loss and slippery abilities using both quantitative analysis of CAH measurements and optical lubricant level observations after different harsh tests. We selected the most promising structures design and chemical coating by successively exposing the surfaces to air and water environment. Innovative depletion tests, closed to a real-life environment, under high wind blowing, up to 45 m.s-1, were performed without damaging the sliding properties. Optical transparency of samples as well as their resiliency to mechanical damage have also been estimated. We do believe that from the SLIPS surface fabrication method to their characterization, our results bring breakthroughs in designing highly durable easy-to-do SLIPS and will pave the way for real applications.

Keywords: SLIPS, omniphobic, polymer molding, lubricant retention, wind tunnel