[nanoPost] Oil repellency on superhydrophobic surfaces

University The Netherlands

There have been enormous renewed interests in the past decade on superhydrophobic surfaces in both academia and industry, partly inspired by the elegant examples from our Mother Nature. It is also highly desirable for the superhydrophobic surface to be oil repellent to maintain its self-cleaning property related to water; otherwise, the superhydrophobicity can be easily comprised by oily substances in both household and industrial applications.

We have successfully obtained superhydrophobic films by incorporating raspberry-like silica particles to conventional polymer films, in a way mimicking the dual-size structure of the lotus leaf. We further examined the feasibility to achieve oil repellency on dual-sized-structured surfaces. By modifying the dual-size-structured surfaces with perfluoroalkyl chains, we successfully obtained (super) oil-repellent films as well as superlipophobic cotton textiles.