Design of fluorine-free superhydrophobic coating for fibred architectonic concrete

In outdoor environment, the exterior walls surface of buildings always suffers from damages caused by ultraviolet radiations, temperature variation, abrasion and erosion phenomenon, dust pollution, and microbial adhesion: Thereby reducing their durability over time. In order to overcome these obstacles, the superhydrophobic coatings can be an advantageous solution to ensure long-term stable use by improving the exterior concrete walls durability. In this line, a fluorine-free water-repellent coating was developed through sol-gel method and successfully applied to concrete substrates by dip-coating technique. The coating was formulated with low surface energy polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polymeric silica (PS) to simultaneously modify the microstructure and chemical properties of concrete substrate surface. The coated concrete substrate showed super-hydrophobicity with high water contact angle (WCA) over than 150°. Besides, the self-cleaning property, mechanical robustness, stability under UV irradiations, resistance to temperature and humidity were investigated. The results indicated that the coated concrete substrate cannot be soiled by dust and can resist over than 300 cycles of abrasion test. It also presents resistance to temperature of 45°C associated with a humidity of 80% during 720 hours and showed excellent resistance to prolonged exposure to UV irradiations during 1440 hours. Natural out-door aging tests have shown that the superhydrophobic coating is weather resistant.