Fabrication and Characterization of Superhydrophobic Graphene/Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Composite

Materials with superhydrophobic surfaces have received vast attention in various industries due to their valuable properties, such as their self-cleaning and antifouling effects. These promising superhydrophobic properties are taken into high priority, particularly for medical devices and applications. The development of an ideal superhydrophobic surface is a challenging task and is constantly progressing. Various strategies have been introduced; however, a minority of them are cost-effective. This work presents a facile fabrication of the superhydrophobic surface by using graphene and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. The graphene and TiO2 hybrid nanoparticles are dip-coated on a biodegradable thermoplastic poly(lactic acid) (PLA) substrate. The thermoplastic PLA is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is widely utilized in medical devices. The graphene/TiO2 coating is substantiated to transform the hydrophilic PLA film into superhydrophobic biomaterials that can help to reduce hazardous medical-device complications. The surface wettability of the graphene/TiO2 nanoparticle-coated PLA surface was evaluated by measuring the apparent water contact angle. The surface chemical composition and surface morphology were analyzed via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The graphene/TiO2-coated PLA film achieved superhydrophobic properties by demonstrating a water contact angle greater than 150°. The water contact angle of the graphene/TiO2 coating increased along with the concentration of the nanoparticles and the ratio of TiO2 to graphene. Moreover, the graphene/TiO2 coating exhibited excellent durability, whereby the contact angle of the coated surface remained unchanged after water immersion for 24 h. The duration of the effectiveness of the superhydrophobic coating suggests its suitability for medical devices, for which a short duration of administration is involved. This study reports an easy-to-replicate and cost-effective method for fabricating superhydrophobic graphene/TiO2-coated surfaces, which additionally substantiates a potential solution for the manufacturing of biomaterials in the future.

Multi-Parameter Optimization to Improve the Erosion Resistance of Coating by Fe Simulation

Finite element method (FEM) was used to study the stress peak of stress S11 (Radial stress component in X-axis) on the steam turbine blade surface of four typical erosion-resistant coatings (Fe2B, CrN, Cr3C2-NiCr and Al2O3-13%TiO2). The effect of four parameters, such as impact velocity, coating thickness, Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio on the stress peak of stress S11 were analyzed. Results show that: the position of tensile stress peak and compressive stress peak of stress S11 are far away from the impact center point with the increase of impact velocity. When coating thickness is equal to or greater than 10μm, the magnitude of tensile stress peak of stress S11 on the four coating surfaces does not change with the coating thickness at different impact velocities. When coating thickness is equal to or greater than 2μm, the magnitude of tensile stress peak of stress S11 of four coatings show a trend of increasing first and then decreasing with the increase of Young's modulus. Meanwhile, the larger the Poisson's ratio, the smaller the tensile stress peak of stress S11. After optimization, When coating thickness is 2μm, Poisson's ratio is 0.35 and Young's modulus is 800 GPa, the Fe2B coating has the strongest erosion resistance under the same impact conditions, followed by Cr3C2-NiCr, CrN, and the Al2O3- 13%TiO2 coating, Al2O3-13%TiO2 coating has the worst erosion resistance.

TiO2-Coated ZnO Nanowire Arrays: A Photocatalyst with Enhanced Chemical Corrosion Resistance

Photocatalysis is proven to be the most efficient and environmentally friendly method for the degradation of organic pollutants in water purification. To meet the requirement of large-scale water treatment, there are two important points: One is the lifetime and chemical stability of the photocatalyst material, especially in the complex and harsh aqueous conditions. The other is the ease of synthesis of such photocatalysts with specific nano-morphology. In this work, two common photocatalyst materials, zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2), are selected to form more sustainable photocatalysts with high chemical stability. This involves the combination of both TiO2 and ZnO in a two-step simple synthesis method. It appears advantageous to exploit the conformal deposition of atomic layer deposition (ALD) to achieve nanometer-thick TiO2 coating on ZnO nanowires (NWs) with a high aspect ratio, which are firmly anchored to a substrate and exhibit a large specific surface area. The high chemical stability of the ALD TiO2 coating has been investigated in detail and proven to be effective under both strong acid and strong alkaline aqueous solutions. In addition, photocatalysis experiments with organic dyes show that via this simple two-step synthesis method, the produced ZnO/TiO2 tandem does indeed exhibit improved chemical stability in a harsh environment, while allowing efficient photodegradation.