Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Surfaces from Binary Colloidal Assembly

• Published in: Langmuir Vol. 21; no. 20; pp. 9143 - 9148
• Main Authors: Zhang, Gang, Wang, Dayang, Gu, Zhong-Ze, Möhwald, Helmuth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 27.09.2005
• Subjects: Chemistry; Colloidal gels. Colloidal sols; Colloidal state and disperse state; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Self assembly; Modification; Stability; Roughness; Durability; Silica; Hydrophily; Colloidal gel; Regeneration; Calcium Carbonates; Heating; Styrene polymer; Silicon; Hydrogel; Structure; Surface energy; Wafer
• ISSN: 0743-7463; 1520-5827
• DOI: 10.1021/la0511945

In this work, superhydrophobic surfaces were derived from binary colloidal assemblies. CaCO3-loaded hydrogel spheres and silica or polystyrene ones were consecutively dip-coated on silicon wafers. The former assemblies were recruited as templates for the latter self-assembly. Due to the hydrophilicity difference between silicon wafers and CaCO3-loaded hydrogel spheres, the region selective localization of silica or polystyrene spheres leads to irregular binary structures with a hierarchical roughness. The subsequent modification with low surface energy molecules yields a superhydrophobic surface. The heating treatment may largely enhance the mechanical stability of the resulting binary structures, which allows regeneration of the surface superhydrophobicity, providing a good durability in practice.