Self‐roughened superhydrophobic polydopamine coating with excellent self‐cleaning, anti‐corrosion, and UV shielding performances

Abstract Various strategies have been developed to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces with the guidance of adding rough micro‐nano structure and decreasing surface energy. However, it is still a challenge to prepare a superhydrophobic coating with multifunction, eco‐friendliness, and broad applicability to substrates. The mussel‐inspired polydopamine (PDA) possessing superior material‐independent adhesion was considered as the promising candidate material. Herein, a hierarchical superhydrophobic PDA coating was fabricated on Cu substrate via a facile self‐assembly method. Thanks to PDA's self‐roughening and self‐adhesive effects, the coating obtains sufficient surface roughness and good interface adhesion. The superhydrophobic coating exhibits excellent self‐cleaning performance and enhanced corrosion resistance based on the surface wettability. Moreover, it possesses the additional functions of UV resistance and self‐healing, inheriting from the PDA coating. PDA and the surface modifier are nontoxic, biodegradable, and eco‐friendly. Our findings indicate that PDA can be used as an independent structural coating with multiple functions of corrosion protection, UV resistance, and superhydrophobic properties.