Tough, Hydrophobic, Pressure-Resistant, and Self-Cleaning Underwater Engineering Materials Based on Copolymerization of Butadiene and Trifluoroethyl Methacrylate

In recent years, the further development and utilization of marine resources have led to a great deal of attention being paid to elastomer materials with hydrophobic and pressure-resistant properties. Here, a series of polymers with adjustable fluorine content were successfully synthesized via the emulsion polymerization of butadiene (BD) and trifluoroethyl methacrylate. The selected copolymers were then vulcanized using sulfur as an industrialized method to produce robust elastomers that are hydrophobic, oil-resistant, and pressure-resistant. According to the tensile test, the material exhibits superior mechanical properties, with the tensile strength reaching 20.2 MPa, and after 10 cycles of compression at 7 MPa pressure, the compression residual strain of the material is only 15%, showing excellent resilience. In addition, the material shows a 105.7° water contact angle with a 17.1% surface fluorine relative content. The stability to seawater and oil has been verified, while the shape memory effect of the material has also been proven. Finally, conductive graphite was added to prepare the conductive elastomer. The success of the underwater sensing and pressure sensing experiments also demonstrates the potential of the material in the field of marine smart materials.