Silicone insulators are gaining its importance in the transmission and distribution of the power system networks. This study proposes a simple and high throughput way of fabrication of superhydrophobic silicone surfaces. The Nd:YAG nanosecond pulse laser was used to engrave six different types of structures on silicone rubber. The water contact angle (CA) and contact angle hysteresis (CAH) were measured using drop shape analyser goniometer. The self-cleaning property of the structured silicone surfaces was tested. Among six types of patterns, the structures formed through 50% scanning overlapped possess high CA (159 ± 1°) with very low CAH (3°) which is desirable for any self-cleaning surface. However, a completely irradiated silicone surface gives the highest CA (163 ± 2°) with very high CAH (61.84°). The proposed work is a vital step towards making a superhydrophobic insulator surface without the use of any coating for high voltage power system applications.
ZhaoM, LiW, WuY, Performance investigation on different designs of superhydrophobic surface texture for composite insulator. Materials. 2019;12(7):1164. doi: 10.3390/ma12071164
5.
YanjunL, FuminC, XiaoyuW, Precise WEDM of micro-textured mould for micro-injection molding of hydrophobic polymer surface. Mater Manuf Process. 2019;34(12):1342–1351. doi: 10.1080/10426914.2019.1660784
6.
ZylkaP.On the surface performance of superhydrophobic silicone rubber specimens fabricated by direct replica method. IEEE Trans Dielectr Electr Insul. 2014;21(3):1183–1188. doi: 10.1109/TDEI.2014.6832264
7.
ZhigaoW, XinghaiZ, FangqiangW, Chemical characterization and research on the silicone rubber material used for outdoor current transformer insulation. Phosphorus Sulfur Silicon Relat Elem. 2017;192(1):109–112. doi: 10.1080/10426507.2016.1231189
8.
ZihuiL, MinG, BinghaiD, Transparent and robust SiO2/PDMS composite coatings with self-cleaning. Surf Eng. 2019. doi: 10.1080/02670844.2019.1691367
9.
JianpingH, ZhenF, YanfenH, Fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces based on fluorosilane and TiO2/SiO2 nanocomposites. Surf Eng. 2020. DOI:10.1080/02670844.2020.1730059.
10.
BinC, ZaoshengL, FenG, Integrated CNTs/SiO2 nano-additives on SBS polymeric superhydrophobic coatings for selfcleaning. Surf Eng. 2020;36(6):601–606. doi: 10.1080/02670844.2019.1650456
11.
WangZ, YangW, SunF, Construction of a superhydrophobic coating using triethoxyvinylsilane-modified silica nanoparticles. Surf Eng. 2019;35(5):418–425. doi: 10.1080/02670844.2018.1446575
12.
YangyangL, RuifengZ, HuiY, Fluorinated nanosilica size effect on hierarchical structure and superhydrophobic properties of the epoxy nanocomposite film. ACS Appl Poly Mater. 2019. doi: 10.1021/acsapm.9b00893
13.
MeiyunZ, SenT, XinzeZ, Performance investigation of a new carbon-silver microsphere/epoxy resin superhydrophobic coating. Surf Eng. 2018. doi: 10.1080/02670844.2018.1541297
14.
MasoumehA, NaderehGE.High stable self-cleaning surface developed by monolithic hierarchical roughness. Surf Eng. 2020;36(6):628–635. doi: 10.1080/02670844.2019.1687970
15.
HeJ, LiB, WuH, Interaction of miscible solutions and superhydrophobic surfaces. Surf Eng. 2019;35(5):387–393. doi: 10.1080/02670844.2017.1421040
PatilD, WassonMK, AravindanS, Fabrication of silver nanoparticles-embedded antibacterial polymer surface through thermal annealing and soft molding technique. Mater Res Express. 2019;6(4):1–7. doi: 10.1088/2053-1591/aaf916
18.
WeiL, ZihuiL, BinghaiD, Transmittance and self-cleaning polymethylsiloxane coating with superhydrophobic surfaces. Surf Eng. 2019. doi: 10.1080/02670844.2019.1603811
19.
PatilD, SharmaA, AravindanS, Development of hot embossing setup and fabrication of ordered nanostructures on large area of polymer surface for antibiofouling application. Micro Nano Lett. 2018;14(2):191–195. doi: 10.1049/mnl.2018.5462
20.
SinghRA, YoonES, KimHJ, Enhancing tribological properties of lotus leaf like surfaces fabricated by capillary force lithography. Surf Eng. 2007;23(3):161–164. doi: 10.1179/174327806X124681
21.
MaghsoudiK, MomenG, JafariR, Micro-nanostructured silicone for high voltage application. IEEE Conf Electr Insul Dielectr Phenom. 2018: 179–182. DOI:10.1109/CEIDP.2018.8544733.
22.
HuangYF, HuangC, ZhongYL, Preparing superhydrophobic surfaces with very low contact angle hysteresis. Surf Eng. 2013;29(8):633–636. doi: 10.1179/1743294412Y.0000000087
23.
ChengC, MingmingL, LipingZ, Mimicking from rose petal to lotus leaf: biomimetic multiscale hierarchical particles with tunable water adhesion. ACS Appl Mater Interf. 2019;11(7):7431–7440. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b21494
24.
MukhopadhyayRD, VedhanarayananB, AjayaghoshA.Creation of ‘rose petal’ and ‘lotus leaf’ effects on alumina by surface functionalization and metal-ion coordination. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017;56:16018–16022. doi: 10.1002/anie.201709463
25.
ChenL, WangX, YangT, Superhydrophobic micro-nano structures on silicone rubber by nanosecond laser processing. J Phys D Appl Phys. 2018;51(44):1–11. doi: 10.1088/1361-6463/aae13d
26.
MingzhengG, ChunyanC, FanghuaL, A ‘PDMS-in-water’ emulsion enables mechanochemically robust superhydrophobic surfaces with self-healing nature. Nanoscale Horiz. 2020;5:65–73. doi: 10.1039/C9NH00519F
OkoshiM.Fabrication of superhydrophobic silicone rubber with periodic micro / nano-suction cup structure by ArF excimer laser-induced photodissociation. Nanomaterials. 2019;9(6):870. doi: 10.3390/nano9060870
29.
CassieBD.Wettability of porous surfaces. Trans Faraday Soc. 1944;40:546–551. doi: 10.1039/tf9444000546
30.
GaoY, WangJ, LiangX, Investigation on permeation properties of liquids into HTV silicone rubber materials. IEEE Trans Dielectr Electr Insul. 2014;21(6):2428–2437. doi: 10.1109/TDEI.2014.004476
31.
WuD, WuS, ChenQ, Facile creation of hierarchical PDMS microstructures with extreme underwater superoleophobicity for anti-oil application in microfluidic channels. Lab Chip. 2011;11(22):3873–3879. doi: 10.1039/c1lc20226j
32.
LiuS, LiuX, LattheS, Self-cleaning transparent superhydrophobic coatings through simple sol–gel processing of fluoroalkylsilane. Appl Surf Sci. 2015;351:897–903. doi: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.06.016
33.
BhushanB.Biomimetics: lessons from nature – an overview. Philos Trans R Soc A. 2009;367:1445–1486. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2009.0011
