Robust and Stable Transparent Superhydrophobic Polydimethylsiloxane Films by Duplicating via a Femtosecond Laser-Ablated Template.
Realizing superhydrophobicity, high transparency on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface enlarges its application fields. We applied a femtosecond laser to fabricate well-designed structures combining microgrooves with microholes array on mirror finished stainless steel to form a template. Then liquid PDMS was charged for the duplicating process to introduce a particular structure composed of a microwalls array with a certain distance between each other and a microprotrusion positioned at the center of a plate surrounded by microwalls. The parameters such as the side length of microwalls and the height of a microcone were optimized to achieve required superhydrophobicity at the same time as high-transparency properties. The PDMS surfaces show superhydrophobicity with a static contact angle of up to 154.5 ± 1.7° and sliding angle lower to 6 ± 0.5°, also with a transparency over 91%, a loss less than 1% compared with plat PDMS by the measured light wavelength in the visible light scale. The friction robust over 100 cycles by sandpaper, strong light stability by 8 times density treatment, and thermal stability up to 325 °C of superhydrophobic PDMS surface was investigated. We report here a convenient and efficient duplicating method, being capable to form a transparent PDMS surface with superhydrophobicity in mass production, which shows extensive application potentials.
Laser Materials Processing Research Centre, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Dingwei
D
Gong
Laser Materials Processing Research Centre, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Jiangyou
J
Long
Laser Materials Processing Research Centre, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Dafa
D
Jiang
Laser Materials Processing Research Centre, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Peixun
P
Fan
Laser Materials Processing Research Centre, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Hongjun
H
Zhang
Laser Processing Research Centre, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester , Manchester M13 9PL, England.
Lin
L
Li
Laser Materials Processing Research Centre, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Minlin
M
Zhong
designed microstructure; duplicating; robust and stability; superhydrophobicity; transparency