High surface water interaction in superhydrophobic nanostructured silicon surfaces: convergence between nanoscopic and macroscopic scale phenomena

In the present work, we investigate wetting phenomena on freshly prepared nanostructured porous silicon (nPS) with tunable properties. Surface roughness and porosity of nPS can be tailored by controlling fabrication current density in the range 40-120 mA/cm(2). The length scale of the characteristic surface structures that compose nPS allows the application of thermodynamic wettability approaches. The high interaction energy between water and surface is determined by measuring water contact angle (WCA) hysteresis, which reveals Wenzel wetting regime. Moreover, the morphological analysis of the surfaces by atomic force microscopy allows predicting WCA from a semiempiric model adapted to this material.