Water-Repellent Fluoropolymer-Based Coatings Paz-Gómez, Guillermo Cabrerizo Vílchez, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Valverde, Miguel Ángel Release coatings Water repellency Fluoropolymer Polytetrafluoroethylene Laser ablation We would like to thank to the company TECNIMACOR S.L. (Córdoba, Spain) for the preparation of the coatings studied in this work. Fluoropolymer-based coatings are widely used for release applications. However, these hydrophobic surfaces do not reveal a significantly low adhesion. Water repellency incorporated to fluoropolymer coatings might enhance their release performance. In this work, we focused on the surface texturing of a well-known polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-based coating. We explored as texturing routes: sanding, sandblasting and laser ablation. We examined the surface roughness with white light confocal microscopy and the surface morphology with environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). Water-repellent fluoropolymer coatings were reproduced in all cases, although with different degree, parametrized with bounces of water drops (4–5 μL). Laser ablation enabled the lowest adhesion of coatings with 24 ± 2 bounces. This result and the current development of laser patterning for industry assure the incipient use of laser ablation for release coatings. 2020-05-12T12:55:13Z 2020-05-12T12:55:13Z 2019-04-28 journal article Paz-Gómez, G.; del Caño-Ochoa, J.C.; Rodríguez-Alabanda, O.; Romero, P.E.; Cabrerizo-Vílchez, M.; Guerrero-Vaca, G.; Rodríguez-Valverde, M.A. Water-Repellent Fluoropolymer-Based Coatings. Coatings 2019, 9, 293. [doi:10.3390/coatings9050293] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/62005 10.3390/coatings9050293 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España MDPI