In this review, we present a survey on hydrophobic surface treatments of concrete, important protection tools against deterioration and corrosion phenomena. In the frame of a standardized distinction in coatings, pore blockage, and impregnation methods, we highlight the huge variety of compounds and formulations utilized, and the different performances reached in terms of water contact angle, water absorption, chloride penetration, and, rarely reported, anti-icing/icephobic action. Our view covers the spectrum of the surface treatments, but also makes a comparison with hydrophobic bulk modifications of concrete, procedures often utilized as well; further, novel proposals of more sustainable routes are presented. We note that coating and impregnation, preferably when based on polyurethane and silane/siloxane, respectively, appear more effective against water ingress. The achieved wetting character is hydrophobic or, at most, overhydrophobic. Superhydrophobic coatings for concrete have been obtained by embedding nano-powders in hydrophobic emulsions, allowing to add a nanotexture to the preexisting complex roughness of the material. Concrete treated with this type of coating has also recently shown a pronounced icephobic character, a parameter that goes beyond the freeze–thaw characterization usually conducted on cement-based materials.

In this paper, we review different plasma processes developed in our laboratory to obtain nanostructured superhydrophobic polymer surfaces. All methods consist of a single step and lead to functional materials which combine a fluorinated chemistry with unique surface morphologies. The transition from sticky to slippery superhydrophobicity, crucial for several applications ranging from microfluidics to outdoor self‐cleaning surfaces, is found by properly tuning process parameters. Methods are compared in terms of process time‐scale and compatibility to different substrates. magnified image