Liquid-repellent surfaces, such as superhydrophobic surfaces, superoleophobic surfaces, and slippery liquid-infused surfaces, have drawn keen research interest from the communities engaged in chemical synthesis, interfacial chemistry, surface engineering, bionic manufacturing and micro-nano machining. This is due to their great potential applications in liquid-proofing, self-cleaning, chemical resistance, anti-icing, water/oil remediation, biomedicine, etc. However, poor robustness and durability that notably hinders the real-world applications of such surfaces remains their Achilles heel. The past few years have witnessed rapidly increasing publications that address the robustness and durability of liquid-repellent surfaces, and many breakthroughs have been achieved. This review provides an overview of the recent progress made towards robust and durable liquid-repellent surfaces. First, we discuss the wetting of solid surface and its generally-adopted characterisation methods, and introduce typical liquid-repellent surfaces. Second, we focus on various evaluation methods of the robustness and durability of liquid-repellent surfaces. Third, the recent advances in design and fabrication of robust and durable liquid-repellent surfaces are reviewed in detail. Fourth, we present the applications where these surfaces have been employed in fields like chemistry, engineering, biology and in daily life. Finally, we discuss the possible research perspectives in robust and durable liquid-repellent surfaces. By presenting such state-of-the-art of this significant and fast-developing area, we believe that this review will inspire multidisciplinary scientific communities and industrial circles to develop novel liquid-repellent surfaces that can meet the requirements of various real-world applications.

Steel reinforced concrete is often used in buildings, roads and bridges, however, freeze–thaw damage and steel corrosion pose threats to the strength of concrete. Furthermore, ice formation on concrete road-surfaces greatly increases injury and fatality rates. Superhydrophobic materials are promising candidates to alleviate these problems due to their anti-corrosion and anti-icing properties. However, the weak mechanical robustness of superhydrophobic surfaces makes them difficult to apply to concrete surfaces. Here we report a facile route to fabricate superhydrophobic concrete (S-concrete) via metal mesh covering and fluoroalkylsilane modification. Comparative robustness tests, including sandpaper abrasion, knife scratch and hammer beat, were performed on commercial superhydrophobic paint + adhesive coatings and our S-concrete, which indicated that our S-concrete had far superior surface mechanical durability. To illustrate the practical prospects, we performed further tests on the S-concrete, including artificial cold rain, freeze–thaw, and corrosion under applied voltage in corrosive solution. The S-concrete showed remarkable anti-icing, anti-freeze–thaw, and anti-corrosion properties, and mechanical robustness.

Robust superamphiphobic coatings fabricated by a facile chemical deposition and low surface energy modification were coated on both hard and soft materials to repel water and oils.

A serial wedge-shaped wettability pattern is designed to achieve long-distance spontaneous and directional pumpless transportation of subaqueous gas bubbles.