Fabrication of a versatile composite material with three-dimensional superhydrophobic for aquatic show

Abstract(#br)Versatile composite materials integrating extreme water repellency with a series of characteristics have been seen as potential competitors for innovative applications. In this work, the author designs a three-dimensional superhydrophobic composite material (TSCM) featuring robustness and repairability by utilizing organic polymer components, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and epoxy acrylate (EPA) and inorganic component, silica particle (SiO 2 ). The bulk deposition and construction preparation method enables the TSCM to exhibit a special three-dimensional superhydrophobic property with a contact angle of 161° and a sliding angle of 2°. Benefiting from the establishment of the covalently cross-linking polymer scaffolding, the TSCM is able to withstand multi-cycles mechanical damage (\u003e150 cycles) and present a damage-insensitive performance. Due to the three-dimensional superhydrophobic and roughness-regenerative characteristics, the TSCM also has the capability of repairing its deprived superhydrophobicity by a polishing procedure (\u003e30 cycles), distinguishing the depletion of healing agents. Most importantly, the TSCM is used to exploit the aquatic light-reflective function of superhydrophobic materials for the first time. Desirably, on the basis of the aquatic light-reflective principle, not only the design control is realized but also the aquatic show is accomplished on each layer of the TSCM, which may widen the applications of superhydrophobic materials in various progressive and intelligent fields, such as deep-sea exploitation, undersea transportation, and aquatic decoration. Our studies convincingly show that this is a worthwhile approach to invent versatile composite materials featuring three-dimensional superhydrophobicity, robustness, and repairability for innovative applications.