Hydrophobic coatings prepared using various dipodal silane-functionalized polymer precursors

This study introduces synthetic methodology to develop hydrophobic surfaces. Hydrophobic surfaces are fabricated via cross-linking of inorganic-organic hybrids, prepared from dipodal alkoxysilane-functionalized urethane precursors (AFUS). The inorganic-organic (I-O) hybrids are synthesized by co-hydrolysis and co-condensation of various precursors. The hybrid solutions are then used to fabricate hydrophobic coatings through spin coating method. The coatings exhibited water contact angle greater than 90°. The properties of the hydrophobic coatings are analysed and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and contact angle measurement (CA). The precursors are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). These environment-friendly inorganic-organic hybrid coatings have shown great potential in replacing the toxic fluorinated alkylsilane based coatings.