Superoleophobic Meshes with Relatively Low Hysteresis and Sliding Angles by Electropolymerization: Importance of...

To study the effects of polymer growth and polymer nanostructure formation on stainless-steel meshes (opening size of 100 μm), we report the behavior of three electrodeposited polymers with varied deposition charge to achieve superoleophobic meshes with low adhesion (low hysteresis (H) and sliding angles (α)). We show the importance of controlling the polymer growth around the mesh wires (two-dimensional growth) to avoid the re-covering of the mesh openings. Indeed, both the polymer micro-/nanostructures as well as the presence of the holes are necessary to highly reduce the solid-liquid contact area and to achieve superoleophobic properties with low adhesion. Herein, with the best polymer, superoleophobic properties are obtained with apparent contact angles of 160° for sunflower oil (H=13°, α=10°), 155° for hexadecane (H=29°, α=30°), 143° for dodecane (sticking behavior), and 134° for decane (sticking behavior).