Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wu, Ting
• Xu, Wen-hua
• Guo, Kang
• Xie, Heng
• Qu, Jin-ping

Titel

Efficient fabrication of lightweight polyethylene foam with robust and durable superhydrophobicity for self-cleaning and anti-icing applications

Ist Teil von

• Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996), 2021-03, Vol.407, p.127100, Article 127100

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paper reports an efficient dissolution and modification strategy for fabricating robust and durable F-PE/SiO2 foam, which could maintain its superhydrophobicity under 980 Pa dynamic pressure of water droplet impacting and 8.1 kPa pressure of water flow impacting. Besides robust dynamic superhydrophobicity, the F-PE/SiO2 foam exhibit exceptional mechanical durability against knife scratching, tape-peeling, bending-twisting, and ultrasonication in ethanol. Impressively, the foam maintains superhydrophobicity upon abrasion damage until all the thickness is worn away. [Display omitted] •Superhydrophobic foam is fabricated via dissolution and modification method.•The prepared foam feature exceptional dynamic robustness and mechanical durability.•The superhydrophobicity is retained upon abrasion until all the thickness is lost.•The superhydrophobic foam exhibits excellence in self-cleaning and anti-icing. The poor robustness and durability of superhydrophobic surfaces under various externally imposed stresses have become a challenging issue for practical applications. Here, an efficient dissolution and modification strategy is proposed for facilely fabricating superhydrophobic polyethylene (F-PE/SiO2) foam with 98.6% porosity using sodium chloride (NaCl) as a sacrificial template and superhydrophobic nano-silica particles as a surface chemical modifier. A microscale porous and interconnected 3D framework is formed when NaCl is dissolved and the nano-silica particles adsorb on the surface of interconnected pores to form nanoscale structures. The F-PE/SiO2 foam exhibits a water contact angle (CA) of 158 ± 2° and a sliding angle (SA) of 4 ± 2°. Interestingly, the F-PE/SiO2 foam could maintain its superhydrophobicity under 980 Pa pressure of water droplet impacting and 8.1 kPa pressure of water flow impacting. Besides robust dynamic superhydrophobicity, the F-PE/SiO2 foam exhibits exceptional mechanical durability against knife scratching, tape-peeling, bending-twisting, and ultrasonication in ethanol because of unique hierarchical micro-nanostructure and the stably adsorbed nano-silica particles. Impressively, the F-PE/SiO2 foam maintains superhydrophobicity upon abrasion damage until all the thickness is worn away, which are potentially advantageous in practical applications. Moreover, this F-PE/SiO2 foam also demonstrated excellence in anti-wetting, self-cleaning and anti-icing, which makes the product can effectively reduce the damage caused by surface pollution, ice formation, and other natural factors when applied to oil-water separation and insulation material of refrigerator.