Facile Fabrication of Robust Superhydrophobic Epoxy Film with Polyamine Dispersed Carbon Nanotubes

Nanocomposite films of superhydrophobic surface are fabricated from the dispersion of unmodified carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and hydrophobic poly(isobutylene)–amine (PIB–amine). The PIB–amine prepared from the amidation of poly(isobutylene)-succinic anhydride and poly(oxypropylene)–amines is essential for dispersing the originally entangled CNTs into the debundled CNTs as observed by TEM. A robust CNTs/epoxy nanocomposite film with high dimensional stability is made by subsequent curing with epoxy resin. The self-standing film exhibits a superhydrophobic property, with water droplet contact angle > 152° due to the CNTs controlled alignment on the surface forming micrometer-size plateaus, as observed by SEM. The preparation of PIB–amine/CNTs dispersion and subsequently curing into a superhydrophobic CNTs/epoxy film is relatively simple and can potentially be applied to large surface coating.