Abstract
A facile one-step method to fabricate hierarchical structured coatings whose wettability could be easily tuned from hydrophilic (water contact angle, 9.3°) to superhydrophobic (water contact angle, 154.2°) by controlling the assembly temperature without any specialized equipment or additional modification is reported. The building blocks for the coatings, hierarchically raspberry-like poly(styrene-acrylic acid) (P(S-AA)) particles with 10 nm corona particles on the core, were produced via a one-step soap-free emulsion polymerization process accompanied by phase separation. The morphology and roughness of the raspberry-like particles can be conveniently regulated by adjusting the amount of S, AA and divinylbenzene (DVB). The chemical composition, crosslinking degree, hierarchical structure and roughness of the raspberry-like particles have significant influence on the wettability of the coatings. The transition of the wettability was attributed to a thermodynamic-driven process that hydrophobic components of the particles migrate toward the surface of the coatings and a decrease of the roughness of the hierarchical structure that was a result of softening and fusing of the particles at temperatures above the Tg of the copolymers.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 703-713 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Polymer Chemistry |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 7 Feb 2015 |