Realistically, green manufacturing of transparent superhydrophobic surfaces (SHSs) and high liquid impalement resistance for outdoor engineering are very necessary but pretty challenging. To address this, an almost all-waterborne system composed of synthesized partially open-cage fluorinated polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane bearing a pair of -OH (poc-FPOSS-2OH), silica sol, and resin precursor is engineered. The transparent SHSs facilely formed by this system are featured with the exclusive presence of wrapped silica nanoparticle (SiNP) dendritic networks at solid-gas interfaces. The wrapped SiNP dendritic networks have a small aggregation size and low distribution depth, making SHSs highly transparent. The Si-O polymeric wrappers render mechanical flexibility to SiNP dendritic networks and thus enable transparent SHSs to resist high-speed water jet impinging with a Weber number of ≥19 800 in conjunction with the extremely low-surface-energy poc-FPOSS-2OH, which is the highest liquid impalement resistance so far among waterborne SHSs, and can rival the state-of-the-art solventborne SHSs.
Keywords: anti-icing; dendritic networks; high transparency; impact resistance; superhydrophobic coatings; water-rich system.