Fabrication of Tunable, Stable, and Predictable Superhydrophobic Coatings on Foam Ceramic Materials

Abstract

Superhydrophobic foam ceramic materials can be used as distillation column internals, and surface wettability has a remarkable influence on column trays. There are no existing methods for industrial fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces on foam ceramic materials. This paper presents a facile method for fabricating stable superhydrophobic or hydrophobic coatings on the outside and inside of foam SiC materials with submicrometer silica particles, for dip-coating, and alkylchlorosilane, for surface reaction. Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering methods, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were employed to study the physical and chemical details. The contact angle of coatings can be tuned to 155°, 140°, 125°, and 95° by adapting coating times and particle size. Superhydrophobic surfaces presented excellent stability under various conditions. In addition, a theoretical prediction strategy by surface microscopic morphology and surface chemical composition based on the Cassie–Baxter model was also presented. Briefly, this paper presents the possibility for large-scale preparation of superhydrophobic coatings on foam ceramic materials