Abstract
An increasing global demand for sustainable packaging and protective materials has led to significant interest in developing effective water-resistant and oil-repellent materials from natural resources. This is because some of the current synthetic water-resistant and oil-repellent materials are made from organofluorine compounds. This study explored the potential of isoprenoid compounds, such as sterols, as biobased replacements for surface coating or packaging applications. The hydrophobicity and oleophobicity of various sterols and related structural compounds coated on silicon wafers and annealed at 60 °C and 140 °C were evaluated. As the annealing temperature increased, the hydrophobicity of sterol groups, such as cholesterol, ergosterol, β-sitosterol, and stigmasterol, increased, with their contact angles ranging from 100.7 ± 0.5° to 105.7 ± 1.1° when annealed at 140 °C. Moreover, cholesterol myristate and stearyl glycyrrhetinate exhibited good hydrophobicity and oleophobicity characteristics when annealed at 60 °C, with water contact angles of 106.4 ± 0.2° and 100.9 ± 0.7° and hexadecane contact angles of 46.1 ± 1.1° and 47.6 ± 5.0°, respectively. Based on the findings of this study, isoprenoids have potential as sustainable alternatives to water and oil repellents, particularly in applications where hydrophobicity is essential. Furthermore, this study offers valuable insights into the significant role of the annealing temperature in enhancing coating properties.
Data availability
All data generated and analyzed in this study are included in this article.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the University of Tokyo and Daikin Industries, Ltd. for providing the necessary facilities to carry out this research.
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Support for this research was provided by Daikin Industries, Ltd.
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NS and HH designed the research; NS performed the experiments; NS, TT and HH wrote the manuscript; and NSSA, MH, YT, YM, KI, YK, KS, NS and YO helped prepare the manuscript.
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Suhaimi, N., Shamsol Anuar, N., Higashi, M. et al. Potential of sustainable, ecofriendly sterol derivatives as additives for water and oil repellency. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-47313-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-47313-z
