International. Chinese researchers have manufactured a superhydrophobic coating with excellent mechanical stability and unique repairability.
Lotus-inspired superhydrophobic coatings have great application prospects for our daily lives. Unfortunately, three formidable challenges – namely complex manufacturing, weak mechanical stability and large-scale manufacturing – have already existed for a long time in this field of research.
In one study, a robust super-hydrophobic micro-nanoscale P25 (Nano TiO2)/MgO/epoxy resin coating has been manufactured through a simple path in a single vessel, which can be applied to arbitrary substrates by multiple methods.
The coating not only shows excellent mechanical stability, but also shows a unique repairable ability to recover its superhydrophobicity under various damages from extreme environments such as low temperature, strong acid or alkali, and this repairable process can be repeated many times. The coating is also easy to manufacture on a large scale with a very low cost.
Source: Journal of Colloid and Interface Science.
