Superhydrophobic polystyrene coating based on phase separation of raspberry structure particle

In this work, monodisperse positively charged polystyrene (PS) particles with a particle size of 900 nm were prepared by dispersion polymerization using methacryloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (DMC) as a cationic comonomer. The polystyrene/silica (PS/SiO 2 ) composite microspheres with a raspberry structure are formed by electrostatic adsorption prepared using positively charged PS adsorbed negatively charged silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ). A novel superhydrophobic coating was constructed by a dip-coating method. Then, the coating film was immersed in a solution of heptadecafluorodecyl trimethoxysilane in n-hexane (0.1 wt%) to carry out surface superhydrophobic modification. Finally, a superhydrophobic coating with 158° static contact angle and 3° sliding angle was obtained. In addition, by adding divinylbenzene (DVB) and changing the amount and size of SiO 2 , the effect of the roughness level and cross-linking structure of raspberry particles on the hydrophobic properties of the coating was studied. Graphical abstract Mechanism diagram of superhydrophobic coating prepared by PS/SiO 2 composite particles.