Industrial applications of superhydrophobic coatings: Challenges and prospects

Abstract

The use of the superhydrophobic coatings and materials in industry is not satisfactory after the intensive activity in research laboratories in the last two decades. We discussed the reasons for this adverse situation under several topics in this review article. The most important issues are the insufficient mechanical resistance and inevitable contamination of the SH surfaces under outdoor conditions, resulting in short useful life-time. The fabrication of a SH surface requires a rough structure with tiny textures on it and this frail framework has a poor mechanical resistance. The topics of superfluous production of small scale and expensive SH surfaces, the difficulty to obtain transparent and also self-healing SH surfaces, the inefficient anti-icing applications of the SH coatings are also discussed.