Micro鈥揗icro Hierarchy Replacing Micro鈥揘ano Hierarchy: A Precisely Controlled Way To Produce Wear-Resistant Superhydrophobic Polymer Surfaces

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• 作者：Eero Huovinen ; Janne Hirvi ; Mika Suvanto ; Tapani A. Pakkanen
• 刊名：Langmuir
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：October 16, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：28
• 期：41
• 页码：14747-14755
• 全文大小：675K
• 年卷期：v.28,no.41(October 16, 2012)
• ISSN：1520-5827

文摘

Superhydrophobic polymer surfaces are typically fabricated by combining hierarchical micro-nanostructures. The surfaces have a great technological potential because of their special water-repellent and self-cleaning properties. However, the poor mechanical robustness of such surfaces has severely limited their use in practical applications. This study presents a simple and swift mass production method for manufacturing hierarchically structured polymer surfaces at micrometer scale. Polypropylene surface structuring was done using injection molding, where the microstructured molds were made with a microworking robot. The effect of the micro鈥搈icrostructuring on the polymer surface wettability and mechanical robustness was studied and compared to the corresponding properties of micro鈥搉anostructured surfaces. The static contact angles of the micro鈥搈icrostructured surfaces were greater than 150掳 and the contact angle hysteresis was low, showing that the effect of hierarchy on the surface wetting properties works equally well at micrometer scale. Hierarchically micro鈥搈icrostructured polymer surfaces exhibited the same superhydrophobic wetting properties as did the hierarchically micro鈥搉anostructured surfaces. Micro鈥搈icrostructures had superior mechanical robustness in wear tests as compared to the micro鈥搉anostructured surfaces. The new microstructuring technique offers a precisely controlled way to produce superhydrophobic wetting properties to injection moldable polymers with sufficiently high intrinsic hydrophobicity.