| Summary: | Microorganisms are recognized to be present in nearly every environmental
situation. Microorganisms create aggressive metabolites such as acids, carbon dioxide,
and sulfur compounds, which can cause irreversible damage. A superhydrophobic
coating is a low-energy surface layer that easily repels water. The surface topography
and chemistry are critical for a surface to acquire the hydrophobic property. The objective
of this study is to determine the characteristic of antifouling and to evaluate the
performance of antifouling on grout, mortar, and reinforced mortar cubes. Tests
conducted were water contact angle (WCA), sliding angle (SA), peel-off test, and fungi
resistance test. The results for WCA for grout was 123.0˚, the mortar was 138.6˚, and
reinforced mortar was 131.4˚ which were lower than 150˚. The results for SA for grout
was 70 ± 5˚, the mortar was 50 ± 5˚, and reinforced mortar was 15 ± 5˚ which were higher
than 10˚. Therefore, the coating does not possess superhydrophobicity behavior. Peel off
test was conducted to replicate the effect of mechanical scratch. All of the samples
experienced decreased performance as the WCA of grout decrease into 124.6˚ to 102.8˚
to 87.4˚ while WCA of mortar decrease to 120.8˚ to 104.5˚ to 83.4˚ and the WCA of
reinforced mortar decrease to 122.2˚ to 112.0˚ to 83.2˚. The fungi resistance test shows
that fungi colonized both uncoated and coated samples for all types of samples after 90
days of observation. This study can be summarised that the coating does not achieve
superhydrophobicity.
|
|---|