title: Self-Healing Underwater Superoleophobic and Antibiofouling Coatings Based on the Assembly of Hierarchical Microgel Spheres.
abstract: Marine biofouling has been plaguing people for thousands of years. While various strategies have been developed for antifouling (including superoleophobic) coatings, none of these exhibits self-healing properties because the bestowal of a zoetic self-repairing function to lifeless artificial water/solid interfacial materials is usually confronted with tremendous challenges. Here, we present a self-repairing underwater superoleophobic and antibiofouling coating through the self-assembly of hydrophilic polymeric chain modified hierarchical microgel spheres. The obtained surface material not only has excellent underwater superoleophobicity but also has very good subaqueous antibiofouling properties. More importantly, this surface material can recover the oil- and biofouling-resistant properties once its surface is mechanically damaged, similar to the skins of some marine organisms such as sharks or whales. This approach is feasible and easily mass-produced and could open a pathway and possibility for the fabrication of other self-healing functional water/solid interfacial materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Advanced Coatings Research Center of Ministry of Education of China, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Kunlin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Advanced Coatings Research Center of Ministry of Education of China, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Shuxue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Advanced Coatings Research Center of Ministry of Education of China, Fudan University , Shanghai 200433, China.
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
keywords: antibiofouling; coatings; microgel spheres; self-healing; surface materials; underwater superoleophobic