Inexpensive and non-fluorinated superhydrophobic concrete coating for anti-icing and anti-corrosion

Reinforced concrete is widely used in civil engineering due to its outstanding mechanical properties and low cost. However, icing and corrosion on concrete-based facilities such as roads, dams, and bridges often cause safety issues. Superhydrophobic surface with completely water-repellent properties that are inspired by the lotus leaf in nature, has great potential to solve this problem, however, most state-of-the-art and commercial superhydrophobic coatings are expensive and weak in mechanical robustness for large-scale application on concrete. Here, we developed an inexpensive, non-fluorinated, and robust superhydrophobic concrete (S-concrete) coating with a contact angle of 160 ± 1° and sliding angle of 6.5 ± 0.5°. This coating had a high surface mechanical strength and retained superhydrophobicity after blade scratch for several times or sandpaper abrasion for 20 m distance. The robust S-concrete coating also had a good anti-icing ability, a low deicing force, and a high corrosion resistance, which is expected to be applied on roads, buildings, bridges, and many other concrete-based facilities in large scale for anti-icing and anti-corrosion purposes.