Reconstructing micro/nano hierarchical structures particle with nanocellulose for superhydrophobic coatings

Nanocellulose, a nano blocks extracted from plant biomass, is a potential candidate for fabricating superhydrophobic materials by reconstructing roughness surface and modifying with low-surface-energy chemicals. In this work, a facile spray drying was used to prepare the nanocellulose-based micro-particles with hierarchical surface structure. The surface structure of particles can be regulated by changing the size of nanocellulose. The prepared particles were modified with methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and then the modified particles mixed with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) proportionally are formulated a new coating, which can be sprayed on filter papers or glass to obtain superhydrophobic surface. The new finding is that the length of nanofiber had great influence on surface structure of formed particles from spray, and the shorter nano-fiber was easier to derive micro-particles with more compact, more even rough surface structure and better superhydrophobicity of final coated materials compared with the longer nanofiber. The superhydrophobic property of the coating can be controlled simply by changing the cellulose nano-fiber length, which is of great significance on hierarchical structure design of the nanocellulose-based superhydrophobic materials.