Facile Fabrication of Robust Superhydrophobic Epoxy Film with Polyamine Dispersed Carbon Nanotubes

Nanocomposite films of superhydrophobic surface are fabricated from the dispersion of unmodified carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and hydrophobic poly­(isobutylene)–amine (PIB–amine). The PIB–amine prepared from the amidation of poly­(isobutylene)-succinic anhydride and poly­(oxypropylene)–amines is essential for dispersing the originally entangled CNTs into the debundled CNTs as observed by TEM. A robust CNTs/epoxy nanocomposite film with high dimensional stability is made by subsequent curing with epoxy resin. The self-standing film exhibits a superhydrophobic property, with water droplet contact angle > 152° due to the CNTs controlled alignment on the surface forming micrometer-size plateaus, as observed by SEM. The preparation of PIB–amine/CNTs dispersion and subsequently curing into a superhydrophobic CNTs/epoxy film is relatively simple and can potentially be applied to large surface coating.