Substrate material affects wettability of surfaces coated and sintered with silica nanoparticles

Silica nanoparticles coating and sintering is a widely-used approach for creating hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces. The role of substrate material in this process, however, has not been thoroughly investigated. In this work, the role of substrate material is examined by measuring surface wettability of three different substrate materials (glass, polyimide and copper) under systematically varied conditions. These surfaces are modulated from hydrophilic (water contact angle (WCA) < 90°) to superhydrophobic (WCA > 150°) by coating and sintering silica nanoparticles, followed by assembling a layer of fluorine compound. Static WCA characterization shows that surface wettability is not solely dependent on the concentration of the coating colloidal, but is also on the substrate material. In particular, copper substrate exhibits a larger WCA than glass and polyimide substrates. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) characterizations show that the substrate material-dependent wettability is attributed to thermal-induced nanostructures on the copper surface, which contributes to the hierarchical micro-/nano- topography. This finding is important for designing hydrophobic/superhydrophobic surfaces comprised of different materials, especially those that would experience thermal cycles in surface functionalization and subsequent use.