Superhydrophobicity is an evolutionary adaption manifested by several natural materials such as lotus leaves, pond skater legs, butterfly wings and so on, wherein extreme water repellency is achieved by exploiting micro/nanoscale or hierarchical surface textures and low-surface-energy materials. Artificial superhydrophobic materials offer exciting promise for self-cleaning, anti-icing, anti-fouling, energy-efficient fluid transport, oil–water separation and so on.
The big drawback of the previously reported artificial superhydrophobic surfaces is that they are readily abraded, sometimes with slight mechanical friction, and readily contaminated by oil. Recently, the research group led by Professor Jun Wu from SEU proposed a solution-based approach to realize the artificial superhydrophobic material. They created an ethanol-based suspension that can be sprayed, dipped, or painted onto various substrates to create a resilient water repellent surface. By combining the paint and adhesives, they created a superhydrophobic surface that showed resilience and maintained its performance after various types of damage, including finger-wipe, knife-scratch, and multiple abrasion cycles with sandpaper.
The same group participated and won the second prize in the Jiangsu province "Internet +" entrepreneurship competition.
