Silane-triggered fabrication of stable waterborne superamphiphobic coatings

The development of waterborne superamphiphobic coatings is environmentally important, which usually needs long time to fabricate the paints and pre- or post-treatment at high-temperature to cure the coating. Moreover, long chain fluorinated silanes are necessary in the paints to obtain superamphiphobicity. In this study, we prepared a simple waterborne paint only containing nanoparticles and fluorocarbon surfactant in a short time. The coatings were originally superhydrophilic and superoleophobic, but they became superamphiphobic after heating in the air with silanes at 80 ℃ for 15 min. This feature allows it to be used for superamphiphobic treatment of hard porous materials and soft cotton cloth. We found that stable superamphiphobicity could be achieved via various silanes even with one methyl group. It was proved that the silane chemically bonded on the nanoparticles not only triggered the flipping of the fluoric groups outward, but also endowed the stable superamphiphobic state by blocking the flop.