Durable Microstructured Surfaces: Combining Electrical Conductivity with Superoleophobicity

In this study, electrically conductive and superoleophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has been fabricated through embedding Ag flakes (SFs) and Ag nanowires (SNWs) into microstructures of the trichloroperfluorooctylsilane (FDTS)-blended PDMS elastomer. Microstructured PDMS surfaces became conductive at the percolation surface coverage of 3.0 x 10(-2) mg/mm(2) for SFs; the highest conductivity was 1.12 x 10(5) S/m at the SFs surface coverage of 6.0 x 10(-2) mg/mm(2). A significant improvement of the conductivity (increased 3 times at the SNWs fraction of 11%) was achieved by using SNWs to replace some SFs because of the conductive pathways from the formed SNWs networks and its connections with SFs. These conductive fillers bonded strongly with microstructured FDTS-blended PDMS and retained surface properties under the sliding preload of 8.0 N. Stretching tests indicated that the resistance increased with the increasing strains and returned to its original state when the strain was released, showing highly stretchable and reversible electrical properties. Compared with SFs embedded surfaces, the resistances of SFs/SNWs embedded surfaces were less dependent on the strain because of bridging effect of SNWs. The superoleophobicity was achieved by the synergetic effect of surface modification through blending FDTS and the microstructures transferred from sand papers. The research findings demonstrate a simple approach to make the insulating elastomer to have the desired surface oleophobicity and electrical conductivity and help meet the needs for the development of conductive devices with microstructures and multifunctional properties.