Superdurable Full-Life Superhydrophobic Composite Block.

Superhydrophobic materials are attractive for industrial development but plagued by poor mechanical stability. Herein, we have designed and fabricated a superdurable full-life superhydrophobic composite block by embedding near-zero contractive superhydrophobic silica aerogel into a rigid iron-nickel foam structured similarly to a regular dodecahedron. The synergistic protection afforded by these materials ensures superrobust mechanical stability for our composite block, which features a high compressive strength of up to ∼7.4 MPa, and ultralow Taber abrasion of down to ∼0.567 mm after withstanding 50,000 cycles, and highly efficient water harvesting capability of up to ∼3,114.3 mg min-1 cm-2 at a supercooling degree of 40 K. This robust material system provides a novel strategy to design superhydrophobic materials capable of withstanding extreme conditions, including high temperature, humidity, pressure, and abrasion. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.