Catalyst-Free and Rapid Chemical Approach for in Situ Growth of “Chemically Reactive” and Porous Polymeric Coating

Design of “chemically reactive” coating with a tailored topography is a simple basis for optimizing various physical and chemical parameters, which is essential for achieving different biomimicked liquid wettability. In general, the essential topography and appropriate chemistry in the superhydrophobic coating is optimized following various top-down and bottom-up approaches, where various hydrophilic building blocks are associated using electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding, and other weak bonding (e.g., metal-thiol etc.), for both developing the desired hierarchical features and optimizing the appropriate chemistry on top of this featured interface. Such designs are inappropriate to sustain practically relentlessly harsh settings. So, further development for the synthesis of a durable and substrate-independent superhydrophobic coating is essential for various prospective applications in “real-world” scenarios. However, the design of highly abrasion-tolerant and “absolutely” substrate-independent artificial superhydrophobicity following a simple and scalable synthesis procedure is rare in literature. In this current work, a catalyst-free and facile chemical approach is adopted for an in situ and rapid deposition of a “chemically reactive” nanocomplex for decorating a wide range of substrates, including water-soluble, water-sensitive, highly flexible, rigid, and fibrous substrates with a highly tolerant biomimicked superhydrophobicity property. Branched poly­(ethylenimine) (BPEI) and dipentaerythritol pentaacrylate (5Acl) mutually react through 1,4-conjugate addition reaction, and a hierarchically featured “chemically reactive” dip-coating is synthesized by the appropriate selection of the alcoholic solvent that is 1-heptanol. Furthermore, the choice of small alkylamines for post-covalent modifications of the “chemically reactive” dip-coating provided superhydrophobicity with a tailored water adhesion. A gradual increase in both roll-off angles, and the contact angle hysteresis (from 5° to 30°) was noted with a decrease in the hydrocarbon tail of selected alkylamines. The synthesized biomimicked interfaces are capable of performing under various practically relevant, severe physical and chemical challenges including bending, creasing, twisting, different physical abrasions (i.e., adhesive tape peeling test, abrasive sand paper test, etc.), high compressive strain, highly acidic and alkaline aqueous phases, artificial sea water, river water, etc. Moreover, this current approach was extended in developing various relevant functional materials, including superhydrophilic/superhydrophobic physical patterns on flexible papers and highly compressible super-oil-absorbent, etc.