通过嵌入含氟多面体低聚倍半硅氧烷笼来提高聚二甲基硅氧烷的超疏水性能

Improving the superhydrophobicity of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a current interest in a wide range of applications from biomedical to aerospace. Although many fabrication techniques are available to improve the superhydrophobicity of PDMS, a significant problem occurs when the fabrication technique applies as a scalable but simple one. Here, we have described simple methods to achieve superhydrophobicity of PDMS using short-chained fluorinated polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (FPOSS). Two species of FPOSS were incorporated into PDMS using four different methods; non-solvent blending, solvent blending, spraying FPOSS/PDMS solution onto a partially cured PDMS matrix and spraying only FPOSS solution onto partially cured PDMS surfaces. Among two FPOSS species, spraying FPOSS onto partially cured PDMS produced a superhydrophobic surface with a static water contact angle of 167° ± 1°. Trifluoropropylisobutyl POSS (TFP) resulted in a higher hydrophobicity than trifluoropropyl POSS cages (CM). The multi-scale structured surface morphology, compatibility of functional groups attached to FPOSS and the fluorine content have shown a significant contribution on the superhydrophobicity in FPOSS/PDMS systems. Amorphous nature of the PDMS has improved upon incorporating FPOSS. Hence, this work presents a detailed study on the effect of the preparation method of FPOSS/PDMS composite on its superhydrophobicity.