The composite lubricating materials research group from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics of the CAS has successfully prepared a coating with the wettability switchable between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity via a facile method. They have received a Chinese invention patent for the preparation technique. The patent is No. ZL: 200810182214.X received on November 30.

By adjusting the chemical composition and the microstructure of the coating under different heating temperatures, the wettability of the polyfluo-wax (PFW)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) composite coating can be switched from superhydrophobicity to superhydrophilicity.

The coating can be applied to buildings, glass, antenna and other industries and adjust the wettability of the surface of materials according to different requirements.

This simple approach offers a new way of fabricating MWNTs based composite coating with a specific wettability at a desired temperature, and could be further extended to control the surface wettability of a wide variety of general polymer materials.