Litcius/Paper detail

Superdurable Full‐Life Superhydrophobic Composite Block

Shanlin Wang, Zhimeng Zhao, Qiang Yu, Pengfei Li, Fei Zhou, Chao Xu, Xiaofeng Zhao, Yuancheng Teng

2024Advanced Materials32 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Abstract Superhydrophobic materials are attractive for industrial development but plagued by poor mechanical stability. Herein, a superdurable full‐life superhydrophobic composite block is designed and fabricated by embedding near‐zero contractive superhydrophobic silica aerogel into a rigid iron‐nickel foam structured similarly to a regular dodecahedron. The synergistic protection afforded by these materials ensures superrobust mechanical stability for the composite block, which features a high compressive strength of up to ≈7.4 MPa, and ultralow Taber abrasion of down to ≈0.567 mm after withstanding 50 000 cycles, and highly efficient water harvesting capability of up to ≈3114.3 mg min −1 cm −2 at a supercooling degree of 40 K. This robust material system provides a novel strategy to design superhydrophobic materials capable of withstanding extreme conditions, including high temperature, humidity, pressure, and abrasion.

Topics & Concepts

Materials scienceComposite numberComposite materialAbrasion (mechanical)Compressive strengthDodecahedronSupercoolingAerogelMathematicsThermodynamicsGeometryPhysicsSurface Modification and SuperhydrophobicityAerogels and thermal insulationAdvanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials