Facile preparation of mechanically robust superhydrophobic concrete with self-cleaning property

Abstract

Superhydrophobic materials have received a lot of attention because of their unique self-cleaning properties and diverse potential applications. Here, a simple route is employed to fabricate superhydrophobic concrete by using pristine concrete and silane. The obtained superhydrophobic concrete is brightly white, and shows high superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 152° and a sliding angle of 7°. A 10 μl water drop could rebound 5 times when it impacted the surface from 1 cm high. The concrete also shows very good self-cleaning properties compared with the pristine concrete. The dirt on the surface of the superhydrophobic concrete could be removed by water drops and more interestingly by gentle breeze. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic concrete shows excellent robustness, which maintained the superhydrophobicity with very small changes in the water contact angles and sliding angles after abrasion at 2 KPa on sandpaper (400 meshes) for 60 m. Even when the concrete was cracked by a plier, the cross-section of the concrete is still superhydrophobic.