Regulating Water Adhesion on Superhydrophobic TiO2 Nanotube Arrays |
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| Authors: | Ziying Hu Xuming Zhang Zhaoyue Liu Kaifu Huo Paul K Chu Jin Zhai Lei Jiang |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Key Laboratory of Bio‐Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Beijing Key Laboratory of Bio‐inspired Energy Materials and Devices, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing, China;2. Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China;3. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China |
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| Abstract: | Bioinspired surfaces with special wettability have attracted a significant attention in recent years because of their potential applications for no loss liquid transfer, anti‐icing, and self‐cleaning. Herein, the realization of two extreme superhydrophobic states on 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H–perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane‐modified TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs) is described by changing the structural characteristics of nanotubes while keeping the surface chemical composition constant. The water adhesive force is regulated in a wide range from ≈4.4 to ≈89.6 μN by the nanotubular diameter, length, density, and surface roughness. The cooperation effect between the negative pressures induced by the volume change of sealed air‐pockets and the van der Waals' attraction at solid–liquid interface contributes to the water adhesion. The superhydrophobic TiO2 NTAs with a high adhesive force is used as a “mechanical hand” to transfer water microdroplets without any loss, and the one with extremely low adhesive force is utilized as a self‐cleaning and anti‐icing surface. |
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| Keywords: | nanotubes superhydrophobicity water adhesion |
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