Development a simple method to create the superhydrophobic composite coatings

This article presents an easy and inexpensive method to elaborate superhydrophobic surfaces. A superhydrophobic surface was prepared by spray coating a mixture of calcium carbonate particles, stearic acid and polymer latex suspensions on an aluminum substrate. The Taguchi L18 orthogonal array was used to optimize the fabrication process parameters, namely the percentage of stearic acid, the calcium carbonate particles to copolymer weight ratio, and the spray distance from the substrate. Through the Taguchi method, it was found that the percentage of stearic acid plays the most significant role in affecting the coating’s wettability. The optimal condition proposed by this method has been verified through additional experiments which showed an increase in contact angle up to 158°