Heat Treatment of PTFE/PDMS/Nano-silica Deposited Layer for Preparation of Superhydrophobic Coating with Anti-corrosion, Anti-scaling, and Anti-fouling Properties

PTFE-based superhydrophobic coatings have received increasing research and the fabricated coatings exhibited excellent anti-corrosion, anti-scaling, anti-fouling, and anti-icing properties. In order to further enhance the hydrophobicity of PTFE coating, a PTFE-based coating consisted of nano-silica and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was fabricated by deposition coating and annealing treatment. The water contact angle and sliding angle of the coating achieved 160.65° and 3.02°, respectively, demonstrating it possessed superhydrophobic property. Due to its excellent surface feature, the coating exhibited resistance to milk, coffee, and mud water, and could be easily cleaned by water flow. Besides, the water droplet on the coating had a longer freezing time and the ice droplet could be easily removed from the coating. Ascribed to the abundant nonpolar groups and the air cushion formed under water, the prepared coating had outstanding anti-scaling and anti-corrosion properties. The electrochemical impedance of the steel plate with the coating (above 9000 Ω·cm²) increased by two orders of magnitude compared with the non-coating one (78.2 Ω·cm²), and the anti-scaling rates of the coating towards BaSO₄ and SrSO₄ were all above 80%. It is promising that the coating will be a competitive candidate in many application fields.