A sky-blue superhydrophobic coating and applications

Efforts made to efficiently fabricate traditional superhydrophobic coating have always faced limitations such as high cost, recontamination, and sophistication. An artificial superhydrophobic copper stearate (CS) polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coating was fabricated to achieve the transition of a water-adhesion surface to a water-repellent surface. This coating formed superhydrophobic surfaces in different types of substrates through dipping, spraying, and brushing, and demonstrated excellent water repellency, low contact angle hysteresis, and weak adhesive forces after exposure to tape-peeling cycles (VHB, 3 M), abrasion cycles, acid/alkali solutions, corrosive solutions, freezing water, and boiling water. Additionally, experiments were conducted on potential applications of the superhydrophobic coating in oil/water separation, self-cleaning, and anti-corrosion.