Revestimento superhidrofóbico de nanocompósito PTFE/CaO fabricado por deposição de espuma em fibras de PLA

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surfaces are of great scientific and technological interest for applications such as self-cleaning, anticorrosion, oil/water separation, microfluidics, among others. The superhydrophobicity depends on surface chemistry and topology. In this work, a new method for producing nanostructured superhydrophobic coatings on fibrous materials using foam deposition was developed. Based on the developed method, polytetrafluoroethylene/calcium oxide nanocomposite coating was deposited on polylactic acid fibers and the superhyphobicity was evaluated. The influence of processing parameters such as nanoparticle concentration, polytetrafluoroethylene concentration, polymerization temperature and polymerization time was evaluated. The nanocoating was analyzed by contact angle, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and electron-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, liquid repellency test with various surface tension values, self-cleaning check test and wash and abrasion resistance test. The results of X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated a presence of polytetrafluoroethylene and calcium oxide nanoparticles on the surface of the polylactic acid fibers, confirming the deposition of the coating by the process developed. Among the processing parameters studied, the condition of 0.6 wt.% of calcium oxide nanoparticles, 80 g/l polytetrafluoroethylene, 140 °C and 90 seconds of polymerization resulted in the highest contact angle value for the nanocomposite coatings (159.67° ± 1.05°). Scanning electron microscopy images, transmission electron microscopy and electron-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy showed calcium oxide nanoparticles with spherical and rectangular shapes and morphological and topographic changes on the surface of polylactic acid fibers with the deposition of the coating. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the presence of the chemical element fluorine on the surface of the coating. The results of the aqueous liquid repellency tests performed on the coated surface using a series of isopropyl alcohol/water solutions of different surface tensions indicated repellency to all tested solutions. The self-cleaning properties of the coated fibers were determined by the removal of dirt by water droplet flow. The nanocomposite coating maintained the superhydrophobicity even after 25 wash cycles and 100 abrasion cycles. In summary, the manufacturing process presented in this research using foam deposition, proved to be simple and practical for the deposition of superhydrophobic coatings in fibers and fabrics. The polytetrafluoroethylene/calcium oxide coating deposited on polylactic acid fibers by foam deposition showed superhydrophobic properties.