Preparation and Super-Hydrophobic Mechanism Analysis of FAS-17-Modified SiO2/PDMS Coatings for High-Voltage Composite Insulators

Pollution flashover on insulators is one of the greatest challenges affecting the smooth operation of high-voltage transmission lines. Demonstrating super-hydrophobic coatings on insulators’ interfaces is an effective measure to prevent insulator flashovers. In the present investigation, a super-hydrophobic FAS-17-modified SiO2/PDMS coating on a composite insulator was demonstrated by spraying. The coating had a contact angle of 159.2° and a sliding angle of 1.3° with better insulation properties. The prepared FAS-17-modified nano-SiO2 nanoparticles were not easy to agglomerate; to illustrate this, the binding energy was calculated by the density functional theory. The super-hydrophobic mechanism of the coating was explained in terms of the adsorption energy between SiO2 molecules and water before and after modification. This paper provides a new method to solve the pollution flashover problem of insulators and a new angle to explain the super-hydrophobic mechanism.