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Fabrication of superhydrophobic and self cleaning PVA‐silica fiber coating on 304L SS surfaces by electrospinning
Author(s) -
Vanithakumari Sampathkumar Chrisolite,
Athulya Vijayan,
George Rani Pongachira,
Philip John
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.50118
Subject(s) - tetraethyl orthosilicate , electrospinning , materials science , nanofiber , contact angle , vinyl alcohol , polyvinyl alcohol , coating , chemical engineering , silane , composite number , fiber , composite material , polymer , nanotechnology , engineering
In this work superhydrophobic coating with self cleaning property is fabricated on 304L SS samples directly using a simple one step electrospinning process followed by silane treatment by using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and tetraethyl orthosilicate solution. A maximum water contact angle of 169.2° ± 2.1° is obtained at an electrospinning potential of 15 kV for 2 h, with a distance of 18 cm between the collector and needle. The hierarchical nanostructures thus formed on 304L SS composed of poly(vinyl alcohol)‐silica microbeads and nanofibers. The surface morphologies are optimized by varying the electrospinning voltage, time, distance between needle and the collector and aging duration of the precursors. Attenuated total reflectance‐infrared spectroscopy studies at different stages of preparation confirmed the presence of PVA/SiO 2 composite nanofibers deposited on the 304L SS surface. The reaction of SiO 2 nanofibers with hexamethyl disilazane resulted in the formation of SiOSi bonds that provided water repellent property. The developed SHP surface coating on 304L SS sample showed dynamic bouncing of water droplets and excellent self cleaning performance. The sample retained the SHP behavior in chloride solutions with different ionic strengths and pH.