title: A robust, melting class bulk superhydrophobic material with heat-healing and self-cleaning properties.
abstract: Superhydrophobic (SH) materials are essential for a myriad of applications such as anti-icing and self-cleaning due to their extreme water repellency. A single, robust material simultaneously possessing melt-coatability, bulk water repellency, self-cleanability, self-healability, self-refreshability, and adhesiveness has been remaining an elusive goal. We demonstrate a unique class of melt-processable, bulk SH coating by grafting long alkyl chains on silica nanoparticle surface by a facile one-step method. The well-defined nanomaterial shows SH property in the bulk and is found to heal macro-cracks on gentle heating. It retains wettability characteristics even after abrading with a sand paper. The surface regenerates SH features (due to reversible self-assembly of nano structures) quickly at ambient temperature even after cyclic water impalement, boiling water treatment and multiple finger rubbing tests. It exhibits self-cleaning properties on both fresh and cut surfaces. This kind of coating, hitherto undisclosed, is expected to be a breakthrough in the field of melt-processable SH coatings.
authors.affiliation: Polymers and Special Chemicals Group, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram-22.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramakrishna
authors.affiliation: Polymers and Special Chemicals Group, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram-22.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Santhosh Kumar
authors.affiliation: Polymers and Special Chemicals Group, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram-22.
authors.forename: Dona
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.affiliation: Polymers and Special Chemicals Group, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram-22.
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Reghunadhan Nair