Hierarchical superhydrophobic/hydrophilic substrates based on nanospheres self-assembly onto micro-pillars

We report a novel superhydrophobic/hydrophilic substrate with micro-/nano-hierarchical structures by mimicking the lotus effect. Intrinsic hydrophobic polystyrene nanospheres or intrinsic hydrophilic silica nanospheres, via evaporation-induced self-assembly, are deposited on the surfaces of silicon pillars, including on tops as well as sidewalls. The obtained hierarchical structures with the polystyrene nanosphere deposition could amplify its intrinsic hydrophobicity, because gas interstices between both the nanospheres and micro-pillars jointly enhance the liquid-gas contact fraction significantly. Related theoretical analysis indicates that such structures could easily achieve an apparent contact angle (CA) of higher than 150°. In experiments, we measure the apparent CA of such kinds of hierarchical structures with the silicon pillars in different geometries, and find that the maximum value is up to 163.8°, with a 3.2° slide angle. The hierarchical structures with the silica nanosphere deposition could amplify its intrinsic hydrophilicity as well, because the double structures greatly increase the liquid–solid contact area. The corresponding experiment results show that the apparent CA can be as low as 7.6°.