An Effective Route to the Fabrication of Super-Hydrophobic Surfaces Combined by Micromolding and Photograft Polymerization Methods

Abstract

A super-hydrophobic surface on the polypropylene matrix was fabricated via micromolding and photograft polymerization. A micro-convex body structure was molded by etching templates. The water contact angle could be increased to 138°. The fluoro methacrylate monomers were further grafted to the surface through UV-induced photograft polymerization. The morphology characterization and the spectroanalysis indicated that the rough hierarchical structure (confirmed by scanning electron microscope) and the grafted fluoropolymers (measured by fourier transform infrared spectrum and X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer) made a critical difference. A water contact angle of 160° was arrived.