Preparation of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/CaCO3 based superhydrophobic coating

In this work, a simple and easy way was developed to prepare a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/CaCO3 based superhydrophobic coating. The obtained coating can be applied to different substrates such as craft paper, glass slide and copper sheet. After being dried under ambient condition, the water contact angle and sliding angle on the coating surface were tested to evaluate the wettability of the coating surface. Results showed that the contact angle and sliding angle on the obtained superhydrophobic coating with the optimum ratio of PDMS and nano-CaCO3 particles can reach 160 degrees and 3 degrees, respectively. Mechanism of the wettability change of the coating surface was analyzed. Moreover, robustness of the superhydrophobic coating against mechanical shear and adhesion strength of the superhydrophobic coating were tested, and the results demonstrated that the coating surface was stable. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.