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One-Step Bottom-Up Growth of Highly Liquid Repellent Worm-Like Surfaces on Planar Substrates
Journal article   Peer reviewed

One-Step Bottom-Up Growth of Highly Liquid Repellent Worm-Like Surfaces on Planar Substrates

Zhengtao Chen, Tien H. Nguyen, Shayna M. Rumrill and Kenneth K. S. Lau
Advanced materials interfaces, v 9(9), pp 2101961-n/a
07 Feb 2022

Abstract

Chemistry Chemistry, Multidisciplinary Materials Science Materials Science, Multidisciplinary Physical Sciences Science & Technology Technology
Highly liquid repellent (superhydrophobic, superoleophobic) surfaces are fabricated using mostly top-down approaches and liquid-based processing. Top-down approaches, like lithography and templating, are highly process-intensive, while liquid-based processing, like etching and fluoropolymer solution coating, rely on solvents that often damage the substrate. Ultimately, to suppress liquids from spreading, the goal is to create a surface with low surface energy and a hierarchically roughened topology. Here, a bottom-up approach that achieves these two prerequisite criteria in one single step is demonstrated. Relying on a liquid-free initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) process, worm-like protrusions of a semicrystalline fluoropolymer (poly(perfluorodecyl acrylate)) directly grow on flat substrates without prior surface pretreatment. The nano/microworm surfaces display super-liquid repellency (>150 degrees contact angle) to water and oil. Worm formation (as opposed to conformal thin film formation) is attributed to preferential crystal nucleation, orientation, and growth on the substrate plane.

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Web of Science research areas
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
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