Fabrication of superhydrophobic wood surfaces via a solution-immersion process

Superhydrophobic wood surfaces were fabricated from potassium methyl siliconate (PMS) through a convenient solution-immersion method. The reaction involves a hydrogen bond assembly and a polycondensation process. The silanol was formed by reacting PMS aqueous solution with CO₂, which was assembled on the wood surface via hydrogen bonds with the wood surface -OH groups. The polymethylsilsesquioxane coating was obtained through the polycondensation reaction of the hydroxyl between wood and silanol. The morphology of products were characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), the surface chemical composition was determined using energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetry (TGA) and contact angle measurement. Analytical results revealed that rough protuberances uniformly covered the wood surface, thus transforming the wood surface from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic. The water contact angle of the superhydrophobic wood surface was about 153° and a sliding angle was 4.6°.     

Fabrication of superhydrophobic copper surface with ultra-low water roll angle

Binary geometric structures at the micro- and nano-scale are fabricated on copper surfaces via simple sandblasting and surface oxidation process. The rough surfaces show excellent superhydrophobicity and ultra-low water roll angle (RA) after fluorination. The structure effect is deduced by comparing it with those of a single micro- or nano-scale structure. Such superhydrophobic copper surfaces can be widely used in many fields such as corrosion protection, liquid transportation without loss. Such a facile technique is expected to offer a feasible avenue for the industrial fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces.     

Rapid fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces on copper substrates by electrochemical machining

Hierarchical micrometer-nanometer-scale binary rough structures were fabricated on copper substrates by electrochemical machining in a neutral NaCl electrolyte. The rough structures are composed of the micrometer scale potato-like structures and the nanometer scale cube-like structures. After modified by the fluoroalkylsilane, the copper surfaces reached superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 164.3° and a water tilting angle less than 9°. This method has a high processing efficiency which can take just 3 s to fabricate the roughness required by the superhydrophobic surface. The effect of the processing time on wettability of the copper surfaces was investigated in this paper. The possible mechanism of the formation of the hierarchical roughness was also proposed, and the wettability of the copper surfaces was discussed on the basis of the Cassie-Baxter theory.     

Fabrication of superhydrophobic wood surface by a sol-gel process

The superhydrophobic wood surface was fabricated via a sol-gel process followed by a fluorination treatment of 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H- perfluoroalkyltriethoxysilanes (POTS) reagent. The crystallization type of silica nanoparticles on wood surface was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), the microstructure and chemical composition of the superhydrophobic wood surface were described by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), the bonding force between the silica nanoparticles and POTS reagent was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and the superhydrophobic property of the treated sample was measured by contact angle (CA) measurements. An analytical characterization revealed that nanoscale silica spheres stacked uniformly over the wood surface, and with the combination of the high surface roughness of silica nanoparticles and the low surface free energy film of POTS on wood surface, the wood surface has turned its wetting property from hydrophilic into superhydrophobic with a water contact angle of 164° and sliding angle less than 3°.     

A simple solution-immersion process for the fabrication of superhydrophobic cupric stearate surface with easy repairable property

The present work reports a simple and time-saving method to fabricate cupric stearate film on zinc substrate by a solution-immersion process. Superhydrophobic surfaces are conventionally prepared employing two steps: roughening a surface and lowering its surface energy. The fabrication of superhydrophobic cupric stearate surface is reported using a one-step process by immersing a zinc plate coated with copper into the stearic acid solution, simplifying the complexity of two different steps involved in the conventional methods. The surface of the zinc plate coated with copper is found to be covered with low surface energy cupric stearate film providing the water contact angle of 160 ± 1° with the rolling off properties. In addition, the damaged superhydrophobic surface can restore superhydrophobicity property by immersing the surface into the stearic acid solution again.     

Fabrication of a superhydrophobic surface on a wood substrate

A layer of lamellar superhydrophobic coating was fabricated on a wood surface through a wet chemical process. The superhydrophobic property of the wood surface was measured by contact angle (CA) measurements. The microstructure and chemical composition of the superhydrophobic coating were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). An analytical characterization revealed that the microscale roughness of the lamellar particles was uniformly distributed on the wood surface and that a zinc stearate monolayer (with the hydrophobic groups oriented outward) formed on the ZnO surface as the result of the reaction between stearic acid and ZnO. This process transformed the wood surface from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic: the water contact angle of the surface was 151°, and the sliding angle was less than 5°.     

Controllable fabrication of lotus-leaf-like superhydrophobic surface on copper foil by self-assembly

A novel approach was developed to fabricate a lotus-leaf-like superhydrophobic surface on a copper foil by simple self-assembly method with the assistance of the porous PDMS template which was used to adjust the oxidized parts of the copper foil surface before self-assembly. The results showed a series of beautiful flower-like microstructures resulting from the self-assembly of cupric stearate that were distributed at regular intervals on the as-prepared copper foil surface similar to the papillae of lotus leaf surface. The water contact angle of the as-prepared copper surface was up to 161° and its sliding angle was only 3°. Its great superhydrophobicity could be kept unchanged after 6 months in air. The formation mechanism of the lotus-leaf-like structure was discussed. This simple and low-cost method is expected to be applied to design and prepare complicated superhydrophobic surfaces with beautiful regular microstructures on different substrates such as stainless steel, zinc, and so on.     

Fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces on aluminum

A superhydrophobic surface was prepared on aluminum substrate. Anodization and low-temperature plasma treatment were used to create micro-nano-structure and subsequently trichlorooctadecyl-silane modified the rough surface. The result shows that the water static contact of the aluminum surface after anodization and modification by trichlorooctadecyl-silane reaches to 152.1°. A rougher surface with some micro-nano-pores and small mastoids along the edges of pores was generated when low-temperature plasma treatment was applied to anodized aluminum film, resulting in water static contact angle up to 157.8°.     

Preparation and characterization of slice-like Cu2(OH)3NO3 superhydrophobic structure on copper foil

Superhydrophobic structure was prepared on copper foil via a facile solution-immersion method. Thus slice-like Cu₂(OH)₃NO₃ crystal was prepared on the surface of the copper foil by sequential immersing in an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide and cupric nitrate. And the superhydrophobic structure was obtained by modifying the slice-like Cu₂(OH)₃NO₃ crystal with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (FAS-17). The morphologies, chemical compositions and states, and hydrophobicity of the surface-modifying films on the copper foil substrates were analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and water contact angle measurement. Moreover, the thermal stability of the slice-like structure was also evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). It was found that roughening of the copper foil surface helped to increase the hydrophobicity to some extent, but no superhydrophobicity was obtained unless the slice-like Cu₂(OH)₃NO₃ crystal formed on the Cu substrate was modified with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane. Besides, the superhydrophobicity of the FAS-17-modified slice-like Cu₂(OH)₃NO₃ structure was closely related to the surface morphology. And this hydrophobic structure retained good superhydrophobic stability at elevated temperature and in long-term storage as well, which should be critical to the application of Cu-matrix materials in engineering.     

Fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces on zinc substrates

Stable superhydrophobic surfaces were fabricated on the zinc substrates through simple silver replacement deposition process with the modification of octadecyl mercaptan. The effects of reaction conditions on the surface morphology and wettability of the prepared surfaces were carefully studied. The results show that the fabrication of a best superhydrophobic surface depends largely on the moderate reactant concentration. When the concentration of AgNO₃ solution was 2 mmol/L, the zinc substrate was covered by a dendritic outline structure. Aggregated silver nanoparticles were formed on the substrate in accordance with some certain laws, exhibiting great surface roughness. The typical hierarchical micro-nanostructures, flower-like structures and porous structures also could be found from the SEM images. The maximal water contact angle (CA) value of about 161 ± 2°, and the minimal sliding angle (SA) of about 2° were obtained under the same reaction condition.     

Fabrication of an intelligent superhydrophobic surface based on ZnO nanorod arrays with switchable adhesion property

The superhydrophobic ZnO surface possessing water adhesive reversibility is fabricated by a facile method. The as-prepared surface is low adhesive; however, after being irradiated by UV light through a photomask, it becomes highly adhesive. A water droplet can suspend on the irradiated surface. Further annealing the irradiated surface, water droplets can roll on the surface again. Reversible transition between the high adhesive pinning state and low adhesive rolling state can be realized simply by UV illumination and heat treatment alternately. The adhesion transition is attributed to the adsorption/desorption of surface hydroxyl groups and the organic chains rearrangement on the top surfaces of ZnO.     

The fabrication of superhydrophobic copper films by a low-pressure-oxidation method

The lotus-leaf-like superhydrophobic copper was fabricated by a facile two-step method without the chemical modification, on which the water contact angle can reach 158° and the water-sliding angle is less than 10°. Reversible superhydrophobicity to superhydrophilicity transition was observed and controlled by alternation of UV irradiation and dark storage. More interestingly, the superhydrophobic surface exhibits superoleophilicity and all those properties can be well used in reversible switch, separating the water and oil and so on.     

Fabrication of superhydrophobic polyaniline films with rapidly switchable wettability

A superhydrophobic polyaniline (PANI) film has been fabricated by using a facile one-step spraying method. The PANI was synthesized via in situ doping polymerization in the presence of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as the dopant. The water contact angle of this superhydrophobic surface reaches to 156°. Both the surface chemical compositions and morphological structures were analyzed. A granular morphology of PANI with a moderate amount of nanofibers was obtained. Moreover, a rapid surface wettability transition between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity can be observed when it is doped with PFOA and de-doped with base. The mechanism for this tunable wettability has been discussed in detail.     

Facile fabrication of superhydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene surface by cold pressing and sintering

A series of superhydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) surfaces were prepared by a facile cold pressing and sintering method, and their microstructures and wetting behaviors could be artificially tailored by altering sintering temperature and using different masks. Specifically, the microstructures mainly depended on the sintering temperature, whereas the wetting behaviors, water contact angle (WCA) and sliding angle (SA), greatly hinged on both the sintering temperature and mask. Then a preferable superhydrophobic surface with WCA of 162 ± 2° and SA of 7° could be obtained when the sintering temperature was 360 °C and the 1000 grit abrasive paper was used as a mask. In addition, it was worth noting that the as-prepared surfaces exhibited excellent stability under UV illumination, which was the most key factor for them toward practical applications.     

Fabrication of two biomimetic superhydrophobic polymeric surfaces

Two biomimetic superhydrophobic polymeric surfaces were obtained by a simple approach under ambient atmosphere. Water and ethanol were used as the nonsolvents in the method of phase separation in different systems. The influences of various factors in the process were investigated. Both of the as-prepared films showed excellent superhydrophobicity, depending on the high contact angle and the low contact angle hysteresis. Moreover, the classic and a new modified Cassie-Baxter relation were used on the polystyrene and poly-α-methyl styrene films to confirm the superhydrophobic performance.     

Separating small amount of water and hydrophobic solvents by novel superhydrophobic copper meshes

A novel filtration device for the separation of small amount of water and hydrophobic solvents was proposed, and its separation efficiency was also quantitatively studied for the first time. This goal was achieved by a copper mesh with superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties, which was fabricated by simply immersing in aqueous solution of NaOH and K₂S₂O₈, and subsequent modification with n-dodecanethiol. The results demonstrated that a slightly tilted copper mesh could separate small amount of hydrophobic solvents and water with high efficiency. This finding provides a new strategy to the development of functional filtration devices that may have many potential applications in the field such as biomedicine, microanalysis, purification, etc.     

Preparation of superhydrophobic surface with a novel sol-gel system

Sol-gel method is a simple and cheap way to prepare superhydrophobic coatings or films, however, most of the researches on sol-gel focus on silica or ZnO sol-gel. The present paper proposes a novel sol-gel which is made from hydrolysis and condensation of the by-product of polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS) reacting with γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (KH550). The mechanism of formation of the by-product and the sol-gel is discussed and the by-product is characterized by FT-IR. The mass ratio of KH550/PMHS of the sol-gel influences the water contact angle (WCA) and water sliding angle (WSA) of the film made of spraying the sol-gel to microscope glass. When the mass ratio of KH550/PMHS of the sol-gel reaches 0.25, WCA of the corresponding film is 157° and WSA of it is less than 1°. The mechanism of formation of the sol-gel is discussed, and the size of the sol-gel is characterized by polarization microscope as well. The morphology of the film made of the sol-gel is analyzed by means of scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the diameter of the particle of the superhydrophobic film is about 40 μm, nevertheless, from the larger magnification picture, the particle is found to be composed of micro-balls whose diameter is about 2 μm, and the micro-ball is composed of nano-sphere whose diameter is less than 200 nm.     

Mechanically stable and corrosion resistant superhydrophobic sol-gel coatings on copper substrate

Development of the anticorrosion coatings on metals having both passive matrix functionality and active response to changes in the aggressive environment has raised tremendous interest in material science. Using a sol-gel deposition method, superhydrophobic copper substrate could be obtained. The best hydrophobic coating sol was prepared with methyltriethoxysilane (MTES), methanol (MeOH), and water (as 7 M NH₄OH) at a molar ratio of 1:19.1:4.31 respectively. The surface morphological study showed the ball like silica particles distributed on the copper substrate with particle sizes ranging from 8 to 12 μm. The coatings showed the static water contact angle as high as 155° and the water sliding angle as low as 7°. The superhydrophobic nature was maintained even though the deposited copper substrate was soaked for 100 h in 50% of HCl solution. The coatings are stable against humidity and showed superhydrophobic behavior even after 90 days of exposure. The coatings are mechanically stable and water drops maintained the spherical shape on the bent copper substrate, which was bent more than 90°.     

Fabrication of superhydrophobic polyurethane/organoclay nano-structured composites from cyclomethicone-in-water emulsions

Nano-structured polyurethane/organoclay composite films were fabricated by dispersing moisture-curable polyurethanes and fatty amine/amino-silane surface modified montmorillonite clay (organoclay) in cyclomethicone-in-water emulsions. Cyclomethicone Pickering emulsions were made by emulsifying decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D₅), dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D₆) and aminofunctional siloxane polymers with water using montmorillonite particles as emulsion stabilizers. Polyurethane and organoclay dispersed emulsions were spray coated on aluminum surfaces. Upon thermosetting, water repellent self-cleaning coatings were obtained with measured static water contact angles exceeding 155° and low contact angle hysteresis (<8°). Electron microscopy images of the coating surfaces revealed formation of self-similar hierarchical micro- and nano-scale surface structures. The surface morphology and the coating adhesion strength to aluminum substrates were found to be sensitive to the relative amounts of dispersed polyurethane and organoclay in the emulsions. The degree of superhydrophobicity was analyzed using static water contact angles as well as contact angle hysteresis measurements. Due to biocompatibility of cyclomethicones and polyurethane, developed coatings can be considered for specific bio-medical applications.