Surface Engineering Method to Fabricate a Bendable Self-Cleaning Surface with High Robustness

Self-cleaning is a common phenomenon in natural world and has wide applications in people's real life. Here we report a general surface engineering method to fabricate micro/nano hybrid structure on polymer film, which can be applied to other substrates. The modified polymer surface is superhydrophobic with a water contact angle (CA) of 160 +/- 1 degrees and a water sliding angle (SA) of 3 degrees. When bent to two opposite directions, the convex surface and concave surface are still superhydrophobic and exhibit self-cleaning property. Dusts with different sizes can be cleared away from the modified surface by dipping water drops or spraying water mist. The surface engineering method modified surface has ultrahigh robustness. Its perfect multi-scale hierarchical structure and self-cleaning property barely change even after undergoing one hour ultrasonic oscillation. This method is applicable to modify the surfaces of various materials, architectures and devices into self-cleaning surfaces.