Wear-resistant and conductive superhydrophobic coatings with nest-like structure prepared by a one-step spray-drying method

Abstract Wear-resistant and conductive superhydrophobic coatings with a nest-like structure were successfully prepared via a facile one-step method. The coatings were fabricated by spraying nanocomposites composed of modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and solvent-based polyurethane (PU), in which MWCNTs created both microscale and nanoscale roughness, while PU served as a binder. It is shown that the MWCNTs content can strongly influence the morphology of the composite coating, which thus displays the different superhydrophobicities. The PU/30% MWCNTs coating with a sheet resistance of 2.4 ± 0.1 kΩ/sq exhibits superhydrophobicity with a high contact angle of 159.8°±2° and a low droplet sliding angle of less than 3°. The resulting coating shows the excellent wear-resistance, even after 40 abrasion cycles on sandpaper. Due to its advantages of simple fabrication technology and outstanding wear-resistant performance, the coating has potential applications in anti-electromagnetic interference, corrosion protection for metal surfaces and anti-ice materials for cables.