Pyrolyzing preceramic polymer into ceramic reverses the wettability of the extreme wetting surface and enhances mechanical abrasion resistance. Issue 2 (1st February 2019) - Huang, Xu
Abstract: We introduced a new organic compound to prepare extreme wetting surfaces, and determined that the wettability of the surfaces could be controlled by the curing temperature. Carbon nanotubes were dispersed in the polysilazane ethanol solution to obtain a stable suspension, and an extremely wet coating was prepared on the surface of the sample through impregnation. When cured at 400 °C, the coating was superhydrophobic, but when cured at 800 °C, the wettability was reversed and the coating exhibited superhydrophilicity. Additionally, in order to improve the mechanical abrasion resistance of extreme wetting surface, we design a novel preceramic, polytitanium-silazane, to control the pyrolytic product. Polytitanium-silazane was produced after polysilazane was modified with titanium and a TiN ceramic was obtained after polytitanium-silazane was pyrolyzed at 800 °C. Moreover, hydrophilicity was considerably enhanced than that before modification. Its contact angle was approximately 0°, and a 5-μL droplet of could be completely spread on the surface in 0.2 s.