Preparation And Properties Of RTV Based Superhydrophobic Surfaces

In this paper, a series of room temperature vulcanized silicone rubber(RTV) based superhydrophobic surfaces were prepared for the purpose of developing artificial superhydrophobic surfaces with low cost, easy processing and excellent stability. RTV was selected as our matrix because it had the characteristics of low surface energy and easy processing. The RTV based superhydrophobic surfaces were prepared by the modification of various particles and their mechanical stabilities were systematically studies. In addition, the RTV based superhydrophobic surface could exhibit transparency, different decorative color and noctilucent function respectively by altering the functional particle fillers. This work provides research basis for the practical and mult-functional RTV based superhydrophobic materials. The main research contents are as following:1. RTV based transparent superhydrophobic surface was prepared by two step spin coating method. The RTV solution and the modified SiO2 suspension by OTS were successively spin-coated on glass slides, transparent superhydrophobic surface was obtained after curing. The static contact angle is 166.8° and rolling angle is 4.2°. Test results show that the superhydrophobic surface has good transparency and self-cleaning properties; It was found that the perfluorinated octyl dimethyl chlorosilane modified surface showed superhydrophobicity for ethylene glycol and superhydrophobicity for water simultaneously, while the OTS modified surface only exhibited superhydrophobicity; anti-water impact and storage experiments indicated that the surface modified with RTV solution has better stability than the surface without the modification of RTV solution.2. A simple and versatile method for the preparation of RTV based superhydrophobic surface was developed. The Cu, SiO2, PVDF powders and other types of particle with different size and composition of different powder were uniformly spreaded on the uncured surface of rubber solution, after cured, the surface is superhydrophobic, The contact angle are more than 160°, and the rolling angle are lower than 5°. The mechanical stabilities of all kinds of superhydrophobic surface based on particles/RTV composites were studied systematically. The results showed that the surfaces exhibited excellent mechanical stability, against finger contact, spoon scraping, brushing, water impacting, as well as repeated abrading sanding; In additional, the particles/RTV composites based superhydrophobic surfaces could exhibit different decorative color, conductivity, light transmission and other functions by use of different particles.3. The luminous function of superhydrophobic silicon rubber composite surface was obtained by the co-modification of luminous powder and PTFE particles. The obtained surface possessed a contact angle of 165.1° and rolling angle of 5.5°, and the superhydrophobic property is the best when the PTFE occupies 15% of the mixed powder; The sample absorbed nature light in the daytime can emit bright yellow-green light at night. After irradiated the same time by different light source, the luminescence time of luminescent superhydrophobic material from long to short followed by UV light, natural light and fluorescent light; The energy stored by the sample reached the saturation state after 15 min of irradiation; The contact angle decreases with the increase of immersion time when the luminescent superhydrophobic material was immersed in water.