Journal article
Superhydrophobicity and optical transparency in thin films: Criteria for coexistence
C Wang, AHF Wu, RN Lamb
Journal of Physical Chemistry C | Published : 2014
DOI: 10.1021/jp411062u
Abstract
The balance between roughness-induced superhydrophobicity and its impact on optical transparency was examined using 1-μm thick "seeded" sol-gel coatings. Conventional one-pot synthesis with fumed silica nanoparticles (12-40 nm) cross-linked into a three-dimensional porous network generated controlled hierarchically rough surfaces with apparent contact and sliding angles of θCA > 150 and θS 30 nm and smallest feature fractal dimension ≥3, to produce both superhydrophobicity and visible transparency. © 2014 American Chemical Society.
Grants
Awarded by U.S. DOE
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the use of the Advance Photo Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory, was supported by the U.S. DOE under Contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. This research was also undertaken on the SAXS/WAXS beamline at the Australian Synchrotron, Victoria, Australia. We would like to thank Dr. Nigel Kirby for his assistance at the Australian Synchrotron SAXS beamline, and Institute of Frontier Materials for the use of noncontact optical profilometer at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia). The financial support of the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects (Project DP120104536) is gratefully acknowledged.