Superhydrophobic Properties of Nanotextured Polypropylene\nFoils Fabricated by Roll-to-Roll Extrusion Coating

Abstract

We demonstrate the\nuse of roll-to-roll extrusion coating (R2R-EC)\nfor fabrication of nanopatterned polypropylene (PP) foils with strong\nantiwetting properties. The antiwetting nanopattern is originated\nfrom textured surfaces fabricated on silicon wafers by a single-step\nmethod of reactive ion etching with different processing gas flow\nrates. We provide a systematic study of the wetting properties for\nthe fabricated surfaces and show that a controlled texture stretching\neffect in the R2R-EC process is instrumental to yield the superhydrophobic\nsurfaces with water contact angles approaching 160° and droplet\nroll-off angles below 10°.