Electrically conducting superhydrophobic microtextured carbon nanotube nanocomposite

We report a simple and inexpensive method of producing an electrically conductive superhydrophobic polymer surface by adding multiwall carbon nanotubes directly into the polymer poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) matrix and replicating micro/nanotexture using a replication master prepared by ultrafast-laser microtexturing process. No additional coatings on conducting PDMS are required to achieve water contact angles greater than 161 degrees. The conductivity can be controlled by changing the percent MWCNT added to PDMS and at a bulk loading of 4.4 wt% we report a conductivity improvement over pure PDMS by a factor of more than 10(11) with electrical resistivity rho = 761 Omega cm. This combined behavior of a conductive, superhydrophobic nanocomposite has exciting applications for allowing a new class of enclosures providing EMI shielding, water repellency and sensing to provide built-in temperature feedback. The effect of temperature on the nanocomposite was investigated and a negative temperature coefficient of resistance (-0.037 Omega/K) similar to that of a thermistor was observed. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.