Fabrication of a Superhydrophobic Triphenylene Ether Derivative Film on an AI Plate

摘要

In recent years, superhydrophobic surfaces have received much attention owing to their smart functions such as self-cleaning property, water repellent property, anticontamina-tion, and anti-icing.In nature, many plants, animals, and insects exhibit superhydrophobicity, and this phenomenon motivates researchers to fabricate new superhydrophobic surfaces for practical applications. The most famous example of such a surface is the lotus leaf surface, which is composed of a nano/microscale rough structure and covered with a low-surface-energy material {i.e., Wax).4 The self-cleaning property of lotus leaf can be attributed to superhydrophobicity. A superhydrophobic surface has a high water contact angle (>150°) and a low sliding angle (< 10°). The nano/microscale rough structure minimizes the contact between a particle and the surface of lotus leaf. Thus, the contamination on lotus leaf can be easily removed with water droplets. Therefore, the surface of lotus leaf is always maintained clean. These results have shown that the surface wettability of biological systems can be attributed to the nano/microscale roughness of the surface and the properties of surface-coated materials. Based on these observations, many efforts have been devoted to fabricate artificial biomimetic surfaces with various materials. In general, a superhydrophobic surface is fabricated in two steps: (1) creation of nano/microscale roughness and (2) chemical treatment of the rough surface with a low-surface-energy material. The created rough nano/microstructures on the surface trap air between them, and the trapped air prevents the penetration of water.