Superhydrophobic film fabricated by controlled microphase separation of PEO–PLA mixture and its transparence property

Instead of block copolymers that have been widely used in controlling thin film morphology, a mixture of two homopolymers has been used in this study to create desired nano- to microporous structure. By further modifying the nano-sized porous structured surface, a superhydrophobic surface was obtained. Experimentally, a chloroform solution containing a mixture of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) was first coated on glass slides. Because of the dissimilarity of PLA and PEO, a microphase separation happened and the PEO formed microdomains in the coating layer during the film drying. Because PEO is water soluble but PLA is water-insoluble, the PEO microdomains could be washed out with water but PLA remained, resulted in a porous and rough PLA film. By two or three layer coating and washing, nano-sized roughness was obtained. A thin layer of fluorinated acrylic resin was further deposited on the rough surface. Because of the synergistic effect of surface roughness and hydrophobic, a superhydrophobicicity layer was obtained.