Hydrophobic Devices

Superhydrophobic and transparent surface of FEP

Super-hydrophobic (SH), and potentially glaciophobic, surfaces are of interest for many sectors of activity such as self-cleaning surfaces, textiles, transport, etc.  A sheet of flexible SH polymer makes it possible to transfer such functionality onto a non-flat surface. We have developed processes for manufacturing SH surfaces on flexible polymers of various chemical natures based on nanoimprinting and plasma roughening, with large-scale homogeneity (up to 200mm) (figure 1). An in-depth study of the properties of these surfaces allowed us to show that they also have an glaciophobic character, through the delay of icing, and we demonstrated that this property is impacted by the surface potential [Frolet Applied Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics 2018 ]. These results offer broad application potential and have led to industrial contracts.