Substrate-Independent, Transparent Oil-Repellent Coatings with Self-Healing and Persistent Easy-Sliding Oil Repellency

Abstract

Herein we report a simple and substrate-independent approach to fabricate transparent oil-repellent coatings, which involves alternate deposition of poly­(diallyl­dimethyl­ammonium) (PDDA) and poly­(styrene­sulfonate) (PSS) onto substrates, followed by incubation of the coated objects into perfluoro­octanoate (PFO) aqueous solutions for 2 min. Various low-surface-tension liquids can easily slide down the coating surfaces on flat substrates at a sliding angle lower than 12° for 10 μL droplets. The coatings are applicable to different substrates including Si, glass, plastic, steel, and wood, and those with complex shapes and large surface areas. They are also applicable to rough substrates with roughness at both micro/nanoscale and macroscopic scales to realize the easy-sliding oil repellency. Incubation of the PDDA/PSS polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) into PFO solutions induces an effective but nondestructive substitution of PFO anions for PSS in the PEMs, which results in a composite coating with PFO anions homogeneously interspersed in both the coating surface and the bulk. Thanks to the as-described “repeating-layer” composition/structure of the coatings, their easy-sliding oil repellency can be self-healed after surface decomposition or well maintained after physical damages, due to the replenishing surface. Therefore, the advantageous characteristics of the as-developed oil-repellent coatings and the simplicity of the preparation protocol make the coatings highly practical for real-world applications. It is believed that the coatings can perform as antismudge coatings that shield against oil-borne contaminants, chemical-shield coatings that protect coated plastics from dissolution by organic solvents, and nonstick coatings (of oil tankers or pipelines) that enable loss-free oil transportation