Superamphiphobic Ridge-Like Surfaces Produced by a Layer-by-Layer Self-Assembly Under Electrophoretic Deposition of Fluorinated Nanoparticles for Comprehensive Protection

Abstract

Superamphiphobic surfaces possess a great repellency for both polar and nonpolar liquids, attracted tremendous interest for academia researches and practical applications owing to their potential for self-cleaning and anti-fouling. However, the existing preparation technology for superamphiphobic surfaces, including spraying, dip-coating, etching or chemical vapor deposition, is difficult to deal with the surface treatment of irregular shaped components. And the process is relatively complicated and time-consuming, drastically limited the large-scale production and industrial development. Herein, electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is highlighted for the fast modification on metal sheets with silica nanoparticles embedded in epoxy matrix to prepare highly stable coatings. Firstly, the epoxy resin and silica nanoparticles are deposited under an applied electrical field to form a thin polymer layer to achieve pre-roughening. Next, the functionalized nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed on the polymer layers to generate the superamphiphobic surfaces with ridge-like structure through the layer-by-layer self-assembly under EPD condition. And the as-prepared superamphiphobic surfaces exhibit super liquid-repellency to various low-surface-tension liquids and considerable anti-condensation performance. Moreover, they are durable against comprehensive chemical contamination, such as oil immersion, acid/alkali erosion, resisting corrosion after immersion in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution for more than 70 days. These findings demonstrate the new strategy of using EPD to fabricate durable superampiphobic coatings for comprehensive protection of metal surfaces to endure harsh chemical environments in operation.

Keywords: superamphiphobicity, layer-by-layer, electrophoretic deposition, ridge-like, anti-corrosion