Robust and durable transparent superhydrophobic F-TNTs/TiN coating fabricated by structure tuning on surface of TiN hard coating

Robust and durable transparent superhydrophobic F-TNTs/TiN coating was innovatively prepared by surface structure tuning of TiN hard coating. In this study, TiN coating deposited by multi-arc ion plating was anodized to prepare composite structures embedded with TiO2 nanotubes, followed by treatment with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (PFDS) to create the F-TNTs/TiN coating. The composite coating was a layered structure with a thickness of approximately 95 nm overall. The upper two-thirds of the layer were porous layers with embedded TiO2 nanopores, while the lower layer was a dense TiN layer. The coating exhibits high transparency with an average light transmission of up to 79.6%, and excellent superhydrophobicity with static contact angle (SCA) of about 154° and sliding angle lower than 2.4°, demonstrating outstanding self-cleaning capability. The coating also had the mechanical stability of physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings with a hardness of 21 GPa and still exhibited outstanding hydrophobicity after 20 cycles of sandpaper rubbing. In addition, the coating had favorable corrosion resistance, even after 45 days of immersion. This design provided a simple method for the preparation of robust functionalized coatings and an innovative idea for the intellectualization of PVD coatings.