Facile preparation and property analyses of L-CNC/SiO2-based composite superhydrophobic coating

In recent years, superhydrophobic coatings have received extensive attention due to their functions of waterproof, antifouling, self-cleaning, etc. However, wide applications of superhydrophobic coatings are still affected by their disadvantages of complex preparation, low mechanical properties, and poor ultraviolet (UV) resistance. In this study, cellulose nanocrystal containing a small amount of lignin (L-CNC)/SiO₂ composite particles were used as the main material, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the adhesive and perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane (FOTS) as the modifier to prepare superhydrophobic coatings by a one-step spray method. The resulted coating showed excellent superhydrophobicity (water contact angle (WCA) of 161° and slide angle (SA) of 7°) and high abrasion resistance (capable of withstanding 50 abrasion cycles under the load of 50 g). Moreover, it still maintained good superhydrophobicity after 5 h of exposure to the UV light (1000 W), displaying its good UV resistance. This study provides theoretical and technical reference for the simple preparation of organic?inorganic composite superhydrophobic coatings with high abrasion resistance and good UV resistance, which is beneficial to improving the practicability and broadening the application scope of superhydrophobic coatings.