Effective Approach to Render Stable Dynamic Omniphobicity and Icephobicity to Ultrasmooth Metal Surfaces

Surface modifications for easy removal of liquids and solids from various metal surfaces are much less established than for silicon (Si) or glass substrates. Trimethylsiloxy-terminated polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS) is very promising because it can be directly immobilized covalently to a wide variety of metal surfaces by simply heating neat PMHS liquid, resulting in a film showing excellent dynamic omniphobicity. However, such PMHS films are easily degraded by hydrolytic attack in an aqueous environment. In this study, we have successfully improved the hydrolytic stability of the PMHS-covered ultrasmooth metal (Ti, Al, Cr, Ni, and Cu) surfaces by end-capping of the residual Si-H groups of the PMHS films with vinyl-terminated organosilanes, for example, trimethylvinylsilane (TMVS), through a platinum-catalyzed hydrosilylation reaction. The resulting TMVS-capped PMHS film surfaces showed significantly greater stability even after submersion in water for 6 days, with their excellent dynamic dewetting behavior toward water, toluene, n-hexadecane, and ethanol changing little. In addition, they also showed reasonable anti-icing (icephobic) properties with low ice-adhesion strength of less than 50 kPa even after 20 cycles of testing at -15 °C.