1. Introduction
Material surfaces are highly exposed to
environmental conditions [1], contamination, dirt
[2-3], dust [4], sand [5], acidic water, oily
substances [6], etc. In general, many of these
conditions are undesirable since they negatively
influence the useful life of the material and its
performance [7-8]. Some surfaces are more often
faced with certain substances and are therefore
more prone to damage [7]. That is why, for some
years now, scientists have tried to create surfaces
that meet certain needs [8], starting from knowing
the characteristics and abilities of some plants and
animals.
One of the most studied conditions in recent times
is high-hydrophobic condition. Ultra-hydrophobic
(UH) surfaces show values of SCA between 120-
1500 [9], while in superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces
are above of 1500 [2][6][12-19] between the solid
phase and the liquid phase. This characteristic
allows a wide number of applications, including
self-cleaning [8][10-16], drag reduction
[8][12][17], anti-corrosion [8][10][18-21],
transparency [8][22-23], anti-icing [16][18-20],
oil-water separation [17-18] and so on. This type
of surface influences the reduction of maintenance
costs [24] and increases the useful life of the
materials [25].
There are two approaches to achieve high-
hydrophobic conditions: (i) increase surface
roughness [26-29], (ii) decrease surface tension
[20][30-33]. The first approach is related to the
idea of reducing, as much as possible, the contact
area between liquid and solid, and in turn, being
able to create spaces in which air bubbles can be
located [20] [31][34-36] that serve as a barrier
(protects the drop from morphological
irregularities that can undo them). The second
approach is closer to the chemical composition,
which determines the adhesion forces present in
the contact area [37-40].
There are compounds that make it possible to
achieve superhydrophobic characteristics
through the application of the aforementioned
approaches, specifically the use of silanes.
Vouvoudi et al. [1] manufactured a
superhydrophobic coating for the protection of
the stone-built cultural heritage. They reported
SCA of 1700 approximately. To do this, they
mixed tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and 1H,
1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctyl tri-ethoxy silane
(FAS). Finally, the versatility of the solution
allowed excellent results on at least 3 more
substrates [1]. Zhu et al. [26] created a
transparent SH coating with good mechanical
properties. The silane used was
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which is not
contaminating like those containing fluorine.
The modification achieved by this compound
allowed reaching values of SCA higher than
1600 and transparency levels higher than 76%
[26].
In this article, we report the development of UH
and transparent coatings through SCA
optimization based on a general full factorial
design. The coatings show SCA values greater
than 1400 and transparency values greater than
65%. The corresponding characterizations were
carried out.
2. Methodology
The Figure 1 illustrates the steps to follow in
the present investigation.