Water-Repellent Macroporous Carbon Nanotube/Elastomer Nanocomposites by Self-Organized Aqueous Droplets

Abstract

Water repellent elastomeric surfaces were fabricated successfully on SBS/MWNT nanocomposites films using the breath figure method and subsequent thermal treatment. The uniformly dispersed CNTs were found to play significant roles in tuning the size and ordering of the macroporous morphology at the nanocomposite surface as well as enhancing the mechanical properties of nanocomposites. In particular, the CNTs dispersed in a nanocomposite solution retarded the coarsening process of aqueous droplets during the breath figure process and decreased the pore size in the finally fabricated film. The water contact angle measurement showed that the double-scale structure comprised of self-organized macropores and surface the roughness induced by a thermal treatment produced a highly water-repellent nanocomposite surface.