Candle Soot as a Template for a Transparent Robust Superamphiphobic Coating

In the Stick of It

If a coating makes a surface nonstick, how do you stick the coating to the surface in the first place? For many nonstick coatings, this involves procedures to ensure good adhesion to the underlying surface though the use of surface roughening or intermediary layers. Deng et al. (p. 67 , published online 1 December; see the cover) found a very simple route using little more than candle soot as a temporary sublayer that is coated with a silica shell and subsequently removed via calcination. Once top-coated with a semifluorinated silane, the resulting material possessed a low surface energy for water and also repelled oils, alchohols, and alkanes. While the coating could be damaged through mechanical wear, the remaining material continued to show superhydrophobic and superoleophobic behavior.