TY - JOUR
T1 - Hot embossing for whole Teflon superhydrophobic surfaces
AU - Li, Jie
AU - Yu, Wentao
AU - Zheng, Deyin
AU - Zhao, Xin
AU - Choi, Chang Hwan
AU - Sun, Guangyi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - In this paper, we report a simple fabrication process of whole Teflon superhydrophobic surfaces, featuring high-aspect-ratio (> 20) nanowire structures, using a hot embossing process. An anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane is used as the embossing mold for the fabrication of high-aspect-ratio nanowires directly on a Teflon substrate. First, high-aspect-ratio nanowire structures of Teflon are formed by pressing a fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) sheet onto a heated AAO membrane at 340 °C, which is above the melting point of FEP. Experimental results show that the heating time and aspect ratios of nanopores in the AAO mold are critical to the fidelity of the hot embossed nanowire structures. It has also been found that during the de-molding step, a large adhesive force between the AAO mold and the molded FEP greatly prolongs the length of nanowires. Contact angle measurements indicate that Teflon nanowires make the surface superhydrophobic. The reliability and robustness of superhydrophobicity is verified by a long-term (~6.5 h) underwater turbulent channel flow test. After the first step of hot-embossing the Teflon nanowires, microstructures are further superimposed by repeating the hot embossing process, but this time with microstructured silicon substrates as micromolds and at a temperature lower than the melting temperature of the FEP. The results indicate that the hot embossing process is also an effective way to fabricate hierarchical micro/nanostructures of whole Teflon, which can be useful for applications of Teflon material, such as superhydrophobic surfaces.
AB - In this paper, we report a simple fabrication process of whole Teflon superhydrophobic surfaces, featuring high-aspect-ratio (> 20) nanowire structures, using a hot embossing process. An anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane is used as the embossing mold for the fabrication of high-aspect-ratio nanowires directly on a Teflon substrate. First, high-aspect-ratio nanowire structures of Teflon are formed by pressing a fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) sheet onto a heated AAO membrane at 340 °C, which is above the melting point of FEP. Experimental results show that the heating time and aspect ratios of nanopores in the AAO mold are critical to the fidelity of the hot embossed nanowire structures. It has also been found that during the de-molding step, a large adhesive force between the AAO mold and the molded FEP greatly prolongs the length of nanowires. Contact angle measurements indicate that Teflon nanowires make the surface superhydrophobic. The reliability and robustness of superhydrophobicity is verified by a long-term (~6.5 h) underwater turbulent channel flow test. After the first step of hot-embossing the Teflon nanowires, microstructures are further superimposed by repeating the hot embossing process, but this time with microstructured silicon substrates as micromolds and at a temperature lower than the melting temperature of the FEP. The results indicate that the hot embossing process is also an effective way to fabricate hierarchical micro/nanostructures of whole Teflon, which can be useful for applications of Teflon material, such as superhydrophobic surfaces.
KW - Hot embossing
KW - Nanowire
KW - Superhydrophobic surface
KW - Teflon
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U2 - 10.3390/coatings8070227
DO - 10.3390/coatings8070227
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85051589533
VL - 8
JO - Coatings
JF - Coatings
IS - 7
M1 - 227
ER -