Antifouling activity of superhydrophobic PDMS/hydrophobic silica coating

ABSTRACT This paper assessed the antifouling activities of a superhydrophobic surface with a contact angle of 161.6° and a sliding angle of 4.1° which can be employed on large scales. The preparation of PDMS/silica nanoparticles composite was first described for the production of superhydrophobic surfaces with different contents of silica nanoparticles. Then, the surface roughness of the produced samples was investigated. Subsequently, the surface reaction against the algae was evaluated at different immersion times. The samples coated with PDMS-to-Silica ratio of 100% exhibited higher stability against algal growth for more than 10 h while samples with a coating ratio of 25% withstood algae for less than 2 h, indicating the influence of surface roughness. Although the withstanding time of this coating cannot compete with the commercial antifouling coatings, it becomes vital when it comes to the use of this coating as a drag-reducing surface in which fouling worsens the effectiveness.