An expanding horizon: Facile fabrication of highly superhydrophobic coatings

This work firstly utilizes electrophoretic deposition (EPD) followed by perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (FAS-17) modification as a novel and facile method to fabricate superhydrophobic ZnO and Bi 2 O 3 coatings with great potential application. The stable suspension consists of isopropyl alcohol and polyethyleneimine (PEI). The FESEM investigations show that the resulting two superhydrophobic oxide coatings with reticular-like structures uniformly distribute in nanoscale. The wettability results demonstrate that the water contact angle of all samples can reach to ca. 167° and remain almost unchange after exposure for nine weeks, resulting into an excellent stable superhydrophobicity. Most importantly, this paper provides an effective and low-cost strategy to fabricate to other functional superhydrophobic coatings for various applications.