Superhydrophobic films fabricated by electrospraying poly(methyl methacrylate)- B-poly(dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) diblock copolymers

We present the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces by electrospraying structure controlled poly(methyl methacrylate-bromine) (PMMA-Br) homopolymer and degree of fluorination controlled poly(methyl methacrylate)-b- poly(dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) (PMMA-b-PDFMA) copolymers synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The flow rate has great effects on the surface hydrophobicity of PMMA_50.6, and superhydrophobic surface was obtained at a higher flow rate of 5 μL/min. For fluorinated diblock copolymers, superhydrophobic surfaces can be obtained by electrospraying PMMA_50.6-b-PDFMA_0.8 and PMMA_147.9-b-PDFMA _17.5 at the selected flow rates. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) detections reveal that, during the film formation, more hydrophobic surfaces would be fabricated due to the surface segregations of C-C and C-H groups with THF as solvent instead of C-O-C-O group with DMF as solvent. This investigation may be of great value in fabricating superhydrophobic polymer materials.