Silane decorated metallic nanorods for hydrophobic applications

A novel technique to modify a metallic surface for anti-icing applications is presented. An oblique angle deposition (OAD) technique has been used to fabricate metallic nanorods of Aluminum and Tungsten on a glass substrate. A conformal coating of a silane has been applied using a molecular vapor deposition technique. The resulting surface has shown a static contact angle of 134° with the water droplet. SEM, AFM and XPS have been used to study the surface modification. This is a highly promising approach for anti-icing applications due to its scalability at a very low cost.