Facile preparation and property analyses of L-CNC/SiO2-based composite superhydrophobic coating

In recent years, superhydrophobic coatings have received extensive attention due to their functions of waterproof, antifouling, self-cleaning, etc. However, wide applications of superhydrophobic coatings are still affected by their disadvantages of complex preparation, low mechanical properties, and poor ultraviolet (UV) resistance. In this study, cellulose nanocrystal containing a small amount of lignin (L-CNC)/SiO₂ composite particles were used as the main material, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the adhesive and perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane (FOTS) as the modifier to prepare superhydrophobic coatings by a one-step spray method. The resulted coating showed excellent superhydrophobicity (water contact angle (WCA) of 161° and slide angle (SA) of 7°) and high abrasion resistance (capable of withstanding 50 abrasion cycles under the load of 50 g). Moreover, it still maintained good superhydrophobicity after 5 h of exposure to the UV light (1000 W), displaying its good UV resistance. This study provides theoretical and technical reference for the simple preparation of organic-inorganic composite superhydrophobic coatings with high abrasion resistance and good UV resistance, which is beneficial to improving the practicability and broadening the application scope of superhydrophobic coatings.