Underwater superoleophobic coatings with improved robustness
Oil contamination is problematic in subaqueous environments. In a study, a facile and low-cost immersion-curing approach has been developed to generate superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic coatings.
During immersion curing, polymeric dissolution occurs simultaneously with crosslinking but occurs solely at the topmost layer, and helps to create enriched hierarchical surface micro-/nanostructures. Hence, superhydrophilicity is attainable for nanocomposite coatings with a filler percentage of only 15 wt%.
Free from oil in aqueous environments
Immersion-cured PVA/SiO2 nanocomposite coatings with 35 wt% silica have an excellent underwater superoleophobicity in terms of durability and ultra-low oil adhesion towards a variety of oils, including viscous crude oil. Because of its lower filler content and confined porous structure, this coating has a greater transparency compared with its conventional blend-curing underwater superoleophobic counterpart. Immersion-cured nanocomposite coatings display an excellent mechanical durability based on pencil hardness (3H) and sand-abrasion performance. The extra acrylic/melamine base-coat allows the coatings to be applied to diverse substrates, including glass, metals, and plastics, and renders them free from oil in aqueous environments.
The study is published in: Journal of Chemistry A, Issue 22, 2017.
