Water and oil repellency of flexible silica-coated polymeric substrates

A facile coating technique was used for the one-step creation of silica-sphere layers onto flexible polypropylene (PP) substrates, which showed the enhanced repellency toward liquid droplets with different surface tensions, ranging from 25.6 to 72.3 mN/m. One-step solution preparation comprised the homogenous mixing of colloidal silica nanospheres and perfluoroalkyl methacrylic copolymer, and the resulting F-silica slurry was subsequently deposited over the PP films, which showed good adhesion. The flexible silica-coated polymeric film displayed a remarkable repellency toward water and oil drops, when compared with the F-coated PP flat film. The silica-stacking layers on the PP substrate generated a roughened surface, owing to the creation of bionic surface hierarchically combined with multiple-scale architecture. To clarify this, the wetted fraction was determined from Cassie–Baxter equation, and the work of adhesion, based on Young–Duprè equation, was used to examine the sliding ability of the resulting polymeric films. The cross-cut test incorporated with film bending proved the excellent adherence between silica layer and PP substrate. A satisfactory durability in water and oil immersions for 10 days showed that the resulting PP film possesses strong adhesion and better repellency for a long period, confirming a promising commercial feasibility.