Aggregation-induced emission molecules enable characterization of superhydrophobic coatings

Abstract Protective coatings with the lotus effect enable high water repellency and self-cleaning abilities. These properties have been vital research areas for many years geared towards understanding coatings for improvement. In this article, a superhydrophobic coating of epoxy/fluorescent SiO2 nanoparticles/PDMS resin composite with a sandwich structure was prepared and studied using fluorescence (FL) optical studies. Briefly, the pristine SiO2 nanoparticles were first chemically modified with the aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen) molecules, whose FL behaviors are known to be strongly dictated by the way their molecular rotors are restricted. According to this principle, one can facilely track and understand the nano, micro, and macro interaction of the polymers and the SiO2 nanoparticles in the superhydrophobic coatings under various environments and during use. The current findings show that such emissive superhydrophobic composite coatings can be prepared and characterized easily with a fast, contactless, and nondestructive FL spectroscopic technique. The method does not require the traditional complex and expensive professional sample preparation steps.