Construction of Self-Assembly Based Tunable Absorber:Lightweight,Hydrophobic and Self-Cleaning Properties

Although multifunctional aerogels are expected to be used in applications such as portable electronic devices,it is still a great challenge to confer multifunctionality to aerogels while maintaining their inherent microstructure.Herein,a simple method is proposed to prepare multifunctional NiCo/C aerogels with excellent electromagnetic wave absorption properties,superhydrophobicity,and self-cleaning by water-induced NiCo-MOF self-assembly.Specifically,the impedance matching of the three-dimensional(3D)structure and the interfacial polarization provided by CoNi/C as well as the defect-induced dipole polarization are the primary contributors to the broadband absorption.As a result,the prepared NiCo/C aerogels have a broadband width of 6.22 GHz at 1.9 mm.Due to the presence of hydrophobic functional groups,CoNi/C aerogels improve the stability in humid environments and obtain hydrophobicity with large contact angles>140°.This multifunctional aerogel has promising applications in electromagnetic wave absorption,resistance to water or humid environments.

Green Superhydrophobic Paper with Self-cleaning Properties Prepared via One-step Impregnation

In this study,a green and pollution-free multifunctional superhydrophobic paper-based material was prepared using a simple and efficient dipping method.The superhydrophobic paper with a water contact angle(WCA)of 160°was prepared by attaching micro-and nanocomposite particles,made of stearic acid-modified chitosan and two kinds of titanium dioxide(TiO_(2))nanoparticles of different sizes,to a paper substrate.The surface morphology,elemental composition,and wetting properties of the coatings were examined using scanning electron microscopy(SEM),X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR),and contact angle measurements.Additionally,superhydrophobic coatings exhibited good self-cleaning properties,liquid repellency,ease of repair,and antifouling properties in organic solutions.

Comparative Study of Structure and Property Changes in Corrosive Media for Self-cleaning Superhydrophobic Magnesium Alloys

Magnesium alloys with superhydrophobicity are constructed by controlling rough surface structure and grafting long hydrophobic alkyl chains. Changes of morphology, phase structure, chemical composition as well as wettability, corrosion resistance of superhydrophobic magnesium alloy upon immersing in corrosive media are investigated comparatively. Meanwhile, the contaminating particles on as-prepared superhydrophobic surfaces can be taken away easily by rolling water droplets. Therefore, the results show that as-prepared superhydrophobic magnesium alloys exhibit enhanced corrosion resistance and self-healing performance. Finally, anti-corrosion and self-cleaning mechanisms are deduced. It can be concluded that it is an effective strategy of preparing superhydrophobic surfaces for improving the corrosion resistance and selfcleaning performance of magnesium alloys.

Superhydrophobic Micro/Nanostructured Copper Mesh with Self-Cleaning Property for E ective Oil/Water Separation

In this work, a simple method was carried out to successfully fabricate superoleophilic and superhydrophobic N-dodecyltrimethoxysilane@tungsten trioxide coated copper mesh. The as-fabricated copper mesh displayed prominent superoleophilicity and superhydrophobicity with a huge water contact angle about 154.39° and oil contact angle near 0° Moreover, the coated copper mesh showed high separation efficiency approximately 99.3%, and huge water flux about 9962.3 L·h^-1·m-2, which could be used to separate various organic solvents/ water mixtures. Furthermore, the coated copper mesh showed favorable stability that the separation efficiency remained above 90% after 10 separation cycles. Benefiting from the excellent photocatalytic degradation ability of tungsten trioxide, the coated copper mesh possessed the self-cleaning capacity. Therefore, the mesh contaminated with lubricating oil could regain superhydrophobic property, and this property of self-cleaning permitted that the fabricated copper mesh could be repeatedly used for oil and water separation.

Self-Cleaning Properties of Vanadium Doped TiO₂Sol-Gel Derived Thin Films

In this study, vanadium doped TiO2 thin films were deposited on glass substrates using a sol-gel dip-coating process. X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Vis spectrophotometer were used to characterize the structural, chemical and the optical properties of the thin films. The photo-catalytic activities of films were investigated by methylene blue degradation. Water contact angle on the film surfaces was measured by a water contact angle analyzer. The results indicated that vanadium doping had a significant effect on the self-cleaning properties of TiO2 thin films.

A simple way to fabricate an aluminum sheet with superhydrophobic and self-cleaning properties

A superhydrophobic aluminum sheet is fabricated via a hot water immersing process and subsequently surface modification with heptadecafluorodecyltrimethoxy-silane （HTMS）. As revealed by the scan electron microscopy （SEM）, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, and Fourier-transform infrared spectrophotometer （FTIR） results, a rough pseudoboehmite film is formed on the aluminum sheet, and HTMS molecules are grafted on the film surface successfully. These two factors make the treated aluminum sheet present superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle larger than 160° and sliding angle less than 5°, and possess a self-cleaning property. Furthermore, the flexible superhydrophobic aluminum sheet could be pasted to a cylinder surface without destroying its superhydrophobicity. At the end, the effect of hot water treatment time on superhydrophobicity is investigated.

Self-cleaning performance of a self-cleaning pre-coated steel sheet in an industrial environment

A type of self-cleaning pre-coated steel sheet with excellent self-cleaning performance was developed using hydrophilic surface treatment technology. To understand the self-cleaning properties of this pre-coated steel sheet in an industrial environment, the Jiangjin natural environmental test station was chosen as the outdoor exposure test to be conducted, and the self-cleaning performance of the steel sheet was studied by measuring the water contact angle, stain resistance factor, color difference, and gloss of the steel sheet during the outdoor exposure test. The water contact angle of the self-cleaning steel sheet quickly decreased from 84° to 29° during the outdoor exposure test, and the steel sheet showed excellent hydrophilic properties, which were beneficial to the spread of rain drops and detrimental to the accumulation of the surface pollutants. After an outdoor exposure of 12 months,the self-cleaning steel sheet had a higher stain resistance and cleaner surface than the comparison sample sheet, demonstrating its excellent self-cleaning properties. Moreover, the color difference and gloss rate of the self-cleaning steel ＇sheet were similar to those of the pre-coated steel sheet without hydrophilic surface treatment. Therefore, the hydrophilic surface treatment technology used in this study did not affect the anti-aging property of the self-cleaning steel sheet.

Rendering of Cellulose Acetate Fabrics Self-Cleaning through Treatment with TiO₂Nano Particles

Finishing using TiO2-nanosol treatment of cellulose acetate (CA) fabrics before and after the latter were pretreated with H2O2was undertaken with a view to impart unique properties to CA fabrics, notably, self-cleaning. Finishing was performed as per the pad-dry-cure method. The finishing treatment involved dispersing the nano-sized TiO2particles in a mixture of water and ethylene glycol (1:1) and application of the dispersions to CA fabrics was made under a variety of conditions. Self cleaning ability of the fabrics is favored by 1) increasing the concentration of TiO2-nanosol to certain limit;2) prolongation of curing time up to 15 second;3) raising the microwave power from 80% to 100% but with the certainty that power of 90% is the most proper. Besides, exposure time-to UV radiation-up to 90 minutes is essential to have remarkable self cleaning properties while keeping other technical properties, namely, strength, roughness and wettability practically unaltered. Incorporation of binder in the finishing pad-bath helps stabilizing the deposition of TiO2 with excellent self-cleaning. Pretreatment of CA fabrics with H2O2 is a pre requisite to guarantee excellent self-cleaning ability. Thermofixation and microwave fixation produces fabrics with very comparable technical properties.

A Review on Self-Cleaning Coatings for Tunnels

Self-cleaning coatings for tunnels can effectively remove dust and stains accumulated over the surface of tunnel linings and their appurtenances due to the closed environment and poor ventilation.This paper systematically introduces the current research status of self-cleaning coatings for tunnels,focusing on the development of super-hydrophobic self-cleaning coatings,superamphiphobic self-cleaning coatings,exhaust gas degradation coatings,fire retardant coatings,and tunnel de-icing coatings.The advantages and disadvantages of the five functional coatings are then briefly described,and the problems of self-cleaning coatings for tunnels at the present stage are pointed out.Finally,the development direction of self-cleaning coatings for tunnels is proposed to provide a reference for the research and application of self-cleaning coatings for tunnels.

Multifunctional cellular carbon foams derived from chitosan toward self-cleaning, thermal insulation, and highly efficient microwave absorption properties

To adapt the practical demand,designing and constructing the multifunctional microwave absorbers(MAs)is the key future direction of research and development.However,effective integrating the multiple functions into a single material remains a huge challenge.Herein,cellular carbon foams(CCFs)with different porous structures were elaborately designed and fabricated in high efficiency through a facile continuous freeze-drying and carbonization processes using a sustainable biomass chitosan as the precursor.The obtained results revealed that the thermal treated temperature and g-C_(3)N_(4) amount played a great impact on the carbonization degrees,pore sizes,and morphologies of CCFs,which led to their tunable electromagnetic(EM)parameters,improved conduction loss,and polarization loss abilities.Owing to the special cellular structure,the designed CCFs samples simultaneously displayed the strong absorption capabilities,broad absorption bandwidths,and thin matching thicknesses.Meanwhile,the as-prepared CCFs exhibited the strong hydrophobicity and good thermal insulation,endowing its attractive functions of self-cleaning and thermal insulation.Therefore,our findings not only presented a facile approach to produce different porous structures of CCFs,but also provided an effective strategy to develop multifunctional high-performance MAs on basis of three-dimensional CCFs.

Superhydrophobic Fe-based amorphous coating fabricated by detonation spraying with excellent anti-corrosion and self-cleaning properties

Amorphous alloys without crystalline defects(dislocation,crystal boundary)are ideal hydrophobic coating materials due to their low surface energy.This work used a synergistic method of detonation spraying and surface modification to obtain the superhydrophobic Febased amorphous coatings with high hardness and dense structure on the Q 235 substrate.The results showed that the water contact angles(WCA)of the superhydrophobic coating was 160°±3.6°,and water droplets could bounce off the superhydrophobic coating surface,illustrating the excellent self-cleaning performance of coating.Notably,the corrosion current density(i_(corr))of the superhydrophobic coating further decreased by 2 orders of magnitude down to8.008×10^(-8)A·cm^(-2)compared to the as-deposited coating with 5.473×10^(-6)A·cm^(-2);the corrosion potential(E_(corr))of the superhydrophobic coating shifted by 34 mV to the positive side compared with that of the as-deposited coating(-310 mV).Likewise,the impedance modulus|Z|values of the superhydrophobic coating increased by nearly2 orders of magnitude up to 1×10^(5.6)compared to the asdeposited coating with 1×10^(3.8).Even through lasting immersion in NaCl for 10 days,|Z|values of the superhydrophobic coating were still much higher than those of the as-deposited coating.The superhydrophobic Fe-based amorphous coatings could respond to their applications under extreme conditions due to their excellent hydrophobicity and self-cleaning properties,illustrating their promising future in aerospace,automotive,and machinery industries.

Synthesis of novel magneto-hybrid polyoxometalate composite membrane with simultaneous photocatalytic self-cleaning and antifouling functionalities

Membrane technology is ideal for removing aqueous humic acid,but humic acid deposits cause membrane fouling,a significant challenge that limits its application.Herein,this work proposed an alternative approach to the controllably magnetically induced magnetohybrid polyoxometalate(magneto-HPOM)nanocomposite migration toward the polyethersulfone(PES)membrane surface under a magnetic field to enhance the self-cleaning and antifouling functionalities of the membrane.Before incorporating magneto-HPOM nanocomposite into the PES casting solution,functionalized magnetite nanoparticles(F-MNP)were first coated with HPOM photocatalyst to fabricate a magneto-HPOM-PES membrane.It was shown that the apparent impacts of this novel magneto-HPOM-PES membrane on the hydrophilic behavior and photocatalytic properties of the magneto-HPOM nanocomposite improve the hydrophilicity,separation performance,antifouling and self-cleaning properties of the membrane compared with neat PES membrane.Furthermore,after exposure to ultraviolet light,the magneto-HPOM-PES membrane can be recovered after three cycles with a flux recovery ratio of 107.95%,100.06%,and 95.56%,which is attributed to the temporal super hydrophilicity effect.Meanwhile,the magneto-HPOM-PES membrane could efficiently maintain 100%humic acid rejection for the first and second cycles and 99.81%for the third cycle.This study revealed a novel approach to fabricating membranes with high antifouling and self-cleaning properties for water treatment.

Hybrid Laser Ablation and Chemical Modification for Fast Fabrication of Bio-inspired Super-hydrophobic Surface with Excellent Self-cleaning,Stability and Corrosion Resistance

Although laser ablation is considered as a facile technique to fabricate bio-inspired super-hydrophobic surfaces,the issue is that the initial laser treated metallic surfaces show super-hydrophilic property.It will take a long period to reach super-hydrophobic state under ambient air.It is reported that these super-hydrophobic surfaces could be easily damaged by thermal heating effect or interaction with other liquids,causing uncontrolled loss of super-hydrophobicity.In this study,a stable super-hydrophobic aluminum surface was rapidly fab-ricated via the hybrid laser ablation and surface chemical modification of(heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetradecyl)triethoxysilane(AC-FAS).Surface morphology and chemistry were systematically investigated to explore the generation mechanism of super-hydrophobicity.The water contact angle of the treated surfaces can reach up to 160.6°±1.5°with rolling angle of 3.0°±1.0°,exhibiting perfect self-cleaning capability,long-term stability,and excellent chemical stability in acidic as well as alkaline solutions.The potentiodynamic polarization tests implied that the super-hydrophobic surfaces showed better anti-corrosion performance.This hybrid laser ablation and surface chemical modification are very time-saving and low-cost,which offers a rapid way for quantity production of super-hydrophobic surface on aluminum material.

Fabrication and Characterization of Gecko-inspired Dry Adhesion, Superhydrophobicity and Wet Self-cleaning Surfaces

In this study, gecko-inspired polydimethylsiloxane （PDMS） microfiber surfaces were fabricated by combining Inductively Coupled Plasma （ICP） and micro-mold casting. The effect of roughness and surface energy of counterface on the adhesion of gecko-inspired microflber surfaces and its superhydrophobicity and wet self-cleaning were studied. The adhesion of gecko-inspired microfiber surfaces depended on the roughness of the eounterfaces due to the influences of contact area and interlocking mechanism. SEM images of interfaces between counterfaces with different roughness and gecko-inspired mi- crofiber surfaces revealed the matched and dis-matched contact directly. The gecko-inspired microfiber surface got the larger adhesive force from the higher surface energy counterface, which is consisted with Johnson-Kendall-Roberts （JKR） theory. The smaller dimension and lower duty ratio of microfibers on PDMS resulted in the increasing of Water Contact Angle （WCA） and the decreasing of Sliding Angle （SA） compared to those of smooth PDMS. Particularly, sample P-8-28-20 had the biggest WCA （155°） and SA （7°）, which displayed the superhydrophobicity and the best wet self-cleaning efficiency in all samples. The present studies showed that the roughness and surface energy of counterface both affected the adhesion of gecko-inspired microfiber surfaces. The smaller dimension and lower duty ratio of microfibers on PDMS endowed it with the superhydro- phobicity and the wet self-cleaning abilities.

Preparation of Large Area Double-walled Carbon Nanotube Macro-films with Self-cleaning Properties

Double-walled carbon nanotube （DWCNT） macro-films with large areas, excellent flexibility and superhydrophobicity are reported. The area of the macro-film is larger than 30 cm×15 cm, and this large film can be bended, or folded without any damage, and even can be tailored freely. After a simple modification of perfluoroalkysilane, the surface of the macro-film shows excellent superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 165.74-2 deg. and sliding angle lower than 3 deg., the prepared superhydrophobic films showing excellent antifouling, self-cleaning and water-repellent functions. The topographic roughness and perfluoroalkysilane modification are found to contribute to the observed superhydrophobicity. Considering the outstanding electronic, chemical and mechanical properties of DWCNTs, it is expected that this multifunctional DWCNT macro-film has potential applications in many fields.

A TiO_(2)nanotubes film with excellent antireflective and near-perfect self-cleaning performances

SiO_(2)/TiO_(2)composite films have been frequently used to realize the functions of self-cleaning and antireflection.Increasing the TiO_(2)volume ratio in SiO_(2)/TiO_(2)composite film is beneficial to enhance the self-cleaning effect,while high TiO_(2)content leads to a strong Rayleigh scattering and depresses the antireflective performance,resulting in a bottleneck problem for the dual-functional application.Here,we have achieved a high-quality TiO_(2)nanotubes film with excellent antireflective and near-perfect selfcleaning performances.Ultrasound assisted pickling method has been developed to effectively prepare the well-dispersed protonated titanate nanotubes colloid.After spin-coating and annealing treatment,glass substrate coated with double-side TiO_(2)nanotubes film has a peak transmittance of 99.2%and average transmittance of 97.4%at 400-800 nm.Ultra-high porosity of TiO_(2)nanotubes film(80%)and ultra-fine size of TiO_(2)nanotubes(8.6 nm in outer diameter)lead to excellent antireflective performance.With high UV absorptivity(80%at 254 nm)and formal quantum efficiency of stearic acid(10.9×10^(-3)),TiO_(2)nanotubes film shows near-perfect self-cleaning performance.A persistent anti-fogging ability is also presented.This study demonstrates the feasibility to fabricate pure TiO_(2)antireflective coating for glass substrate,extends application field of the classic TiO_(2)nanotubes,and sheds lights on the practical applications of high-powered TiO_(2)nanotube-based multi-functional films.

Gecko-inspired composite micro-pillars with both robust adhesion and enhanced dry self-cleaning property

Self-cleaning surfaces are desirable in many engineering applications where low energy consumption,reusability and sustainability are of the biggest concerns.Inspired by the gecko’s unique ’dry selfcleaning’ hierarchical structures.Here we fabricated artificial Fe304/PDMS composites that show robust self-cleaning capabilities.The enhanced adhesion performance is attributable to the decrease of PDMS polymerization degree and the load transfer between PDMS matrix and Fe304 magnetic particles.The self-cleaning surfaces showed up to 24.3% self-cleaning rate with as few as 4 steps.Simulation result indicated that the changing of cross linking between Fe304 and PDMS is the main reason for the enhanced self-cleaning surfaces.This work reveals an alternative route of making high-performance self-cleaning smart surfaces that are applicable in the textile industry,robotic locomotion/gripping technology,outerspace explorations and tissue engineering.

Self-cleaning of superhydrophobic nanostructured surfaces at low humidity enhanced by vertical electric field

Self-cleaning is the key factor that makes superhydrophobic nanostructured materials have wide applications.The self-cleaning effect,however,strongly depends on formations and movement of water droplets on superhydrophobic nanostructured surfaces,which is greatly restricted at low humidity(<7.6 g·kg^(-1)).Therefore,we propose a self-cleaning method at low humidity in which the pollution is electro-aggregated and driven in the electric field to achieve the aggregation and cleaning large areas.The cleaning efficiency of this method is much higher than that of water droplet roll-off,and will not produce"pollution bands".A simplified numerical model describing pollution movements is presented.Simulation results are consistent with experimental results.The proposed method realizes the self-cleaning of superhydrophobic nanostructured surfaces above dew point curve for the first time,which extends applications of superhydrophobic nanostructured materials in low humidity,and is expected to solve self-cleaning problems of outdoor objects in low humidity areas(<5.0 g·kg^(-1)).

Self-cleaning and Oil/Water Separation of 3D Network Super-hydrophobic Bead-like Fluorinated Silica Pellets/Poly(aryl ether ketone)Composite Membrane Fabricated via a Facile One-step Electrospinning

Novel super-hydrophobic fluorinated silica pellets/poly(aryl ether ketone)composite membranes with controllable structure have been prepared through incorporating poly(aryl ether ketonc)s with(3-triluoromethyl)-phenyl side groups and fluorinated silica pellets(F-SiO2)by a facile one-step electrospinning.Under the condition of adding 50%(mass fraction)F-SiO2 in the composite membrane,the water contact angle(WCA)reached its maximum(157°±4.3°).The controllable micro/nano-structures grown on the electrospun fibers could be regulated by the F-SiO2 loading,which was illustrated by scanning clectron microscopy(SEM).Moreover,these super-hydrophobic mem-branes also demonstrated excellent durability,anti-fouling property and oil-water separation ability after 200 h of water flushing.These promising PAEK composite membranes with controllable structure have the potential values in large-scale application of filtration,oil-water separation and antifouling.

Self-cleaning Anti-fouling TiO2/Poly(aryl ether sulfone) Composite Ultrafiltration Membranes

A series of novel TiO2/poly(aryl ether sulfone) ultrafiltration membranes with anti-fouling and self-cleaning properties was designed and prepared. First, anti-photocatalytic degraded fluorine contained polv(aryl ether sulfone) matrix(PAES-F) was synthesized. Then the composite membranes were prepared via TiO2 nanopartides and PAES-F polymer matrix by solution blending and non-solvent induced phase inversion methods. Further, separation efficiency, fouling behavior and self-cleaning property of the composite ultrafiltration(UF) membranes were investigated by dead-end filtration experiments using a polyacn lamide solution. The composite UF membranes exhibited outstanding self-cleaning efficiency and anti-photocatalytic degraded property after exposure to simulated sunliglit irradiation.The water flux recovery ratios(FRR)of the optimal composite UF membranes could reach 74.24%, which was attributable to photocatalytic degradation of the organic contaminant by TiO2. And the retention rates of the composite UF membranes could maintain over 97%, which indicated the excellent photocatalytic degradation resistance of the fluorine contained PAES-F matrix. The novel high perfomiance composite UF membranes have a broad application prospect in water treatment.