Preparation of Self‐Cleaning Coating Based on <scp>PANI</scp> ‐g‐ <scp>PSMA</scp> /m‐ <scp> TiO ₂ </scp> / <scp>PS</scp> by In Situ and Post Polymerization

ABSTRACT Self‐cleaning coatings as a disruptive nanotechnology of waterproofing is attracting vast interest and gained wide applications in various fields, including transportation of liquids without loss and wastage, antifog, antifreeze, antibacterial, antisediment, anticorrosion, and separation of water from oil. In this work, the synthesis of photocatalyst superhydrophobic self‐cleaning coatings with modified titanium dioxide based on polyaniline grafted poly (styrene‐alt‐maleic anhydride) (PANI‐g‐PSMA) and polystyrene has been done. Two methods of postpolymerization and in situ polymerization were applied to compare the contribution of PANI‐g‐PSMA to the coating formulation. Also, to improve the uniform distribution of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in the prepared films, the titanium dioxide nanoparticles were modified by (3‐aminopropyl) triethoxysilane. To investigate the morphology of the synthesized coatings and the thermal behavior of the prepared coatings, SEM and TGA analyses were performed respectively. The results of the TGA analysis showed an improvement in the thermal behavior of the prepared coatings. Also, the efficiency of the synthesized coatings was measured by analyzing the water angle and photocatalytic removal of rhodamine dye as a pollutant from the water environment. The results show that the synthesized coatings have an acceptable capability as waterproof self‐cleaning surfaces.