Fabrication of a superhydrophobic carbon nanotube coating with good reusability and easy repairability

Development of superhydrophobic surfaces is severely hindered by their susceptibility to oil fouling and mechanical damage. Herein, to address this challenge, we fabricated a superhydrophobic coating with good reusability and easy repairability by spraying multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) onto substrates followed by surface fluoration. Water droplets exhibit spherical shape on the obtained coating and could roll off the coating at a small tilt angle. Due to its thermal stability, the oil-fouled CNTs coating can regenerate its superhydrophobic property for repeated use by thermally removing the oil contaminants in air. Moreover, when the CNTs coating loses the superhydrophobicity owing to mechanical abrasion, it can be easily rendered with superhydrophobicity once more by a simple regeneration process.