Research On The Preparation And Properties Of Superhydrophobic Coatings On The Radome

Radome,package protection device of the antenna system,has been widely used in 5G communication base stations,vehicle antennas and other antenna systems.In practical applications,the water film and dust formed on the surface of the radome will negatively affect the transmission accuracy of the antenna,especially for the short-wave high-frequency signals of the 5G antenna.However,the current protective coating on the surface of the radome cannot prevent the accumulation of water and dust,as well as other problems such as short service life.The superhydrophobic coating has the properties of anti-water accumulation and self-cleaning.When it applied to the surface of the radome,it can reduce the impact of water and dust on the antenna signal transmission,and also extend its service life through physical protection.To this end,the research on the preparation technology,durability and self-cleaning characteristics and other properties of superhydrophobic coating on the radome has been carried out.A two-step method was used to prepare the resin bonding superhydrophobic coating.The micro-structure of the coating was strengthened by adjusting the content of particles and the blending ratio of resins added in the primer,which effectively enhanced the wear resistance of the coating.The results show that the wear resistance of the resin bonding superhydrophobic coating is more than 30times higher than that of the single superhydrophobic topcoat layer.The coating still maintains excellent superhydrophobicity after 1000 cycles of finger-abrasion.In addition,the wear resistance,water resistance and other properties of the resin bonding superhydrophobic coating after toning treatment can meet the requirements of the protective coating on radome such as polypropylene(PP),polycarbonate(PC)and polybutylene terephthalate(PBT).To a certain extent,it solved the problems of affection on signal transmission of water and dust accumulation and poor durability of the protective coating on the radome.The grading particles,made up of fluorinated modified micro-diatomite(F-DE)and nano-SiO₂(F-SiO₂),were mixed with the low surface energy resin to prepare a superhydrophobic coating by one-step spraying method.Results show that the coating after adding grading particles shows superhydrophobicity.After testing,the coating with the grading particle ratio of 20:6 has the best wear resistance.After 500 cycles of the tester-abrasion,the coating can still maintain superhydrophobicity,and after 1000 cycles of the tester-abrasion,the coating still has hydrophobicity and its mass loss is only 1%.By comparing the microscopic morphology,specific surface area,pore volume and pore size distribution of the particles before and after grading,it was found that nano-F-SiO₂ aggregated on the surface of the micro-F-DE and filled in the micro-pores of the F-DE,which formed the grading particles with double roughness.The grading particles enhanced the micro-structure of the coating,and improved the hydrophobicity and durability of the coating.The superamphiphobic ceramic coating was prepared by one-step spraying method with the modified SiO₂ and high-hardness ceramic paint.By studying the influence of ceramic paint types,raw material addition sequence,modified particle size and content,amount of phenylsiloxane and other factors on the coating performance,the formulation of wear-resisting superamphiphobic ceramic coating with pencil hardness of 2 H was obtained.Results show that the coating has good durability.After 100 cycles of finger-abrasion,the coating still has oleophobicity,and the coating remains superhydrophobicity after 1000 cycles of finger-abrasion.After being soaked in solution of p H=1-13 for 2 h,the contact angle of the oil droplets of the coating still remains above 150°,and the coating still had good superhydrophobic performance after being kept at 400°C for 2 h.At the same time,the superamphiphobic ceramic coating shows good self-cleaning properties.