Development of Environment Friendly Superhydrophobic Polystyrene/SiO 2 Coatings via Sol-gel Route

Development of superhydrophobic coatings, motivated by nature (lotus plant) is one of the emerging technologies. The water repellent surface coatings are highly desired in day to day life and engineering applications for example to avoid corrosion, moisture, biofouling and air drag etc. In the present study, environment friendly superhydrophobic polystyrene/SiO2 coatings retaining average roughness <100 nm has been produced on glass substrate by spin coating method. The estimated ordered roughness has been achieved using 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxy silane as an accumulating agent. The roughness was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Chlorotrimethylsilane was used as SiO2 nanoparticle surface functionalization agent in order to develop superhydrophobic coating. The functionalization of nanoparticles was established by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The contact angles were determined using Drop Shape Analyser. The composition of polystyrene and nanoparticles was varied to derive a high contact angle approaching super hydrophobic nature.