Facile synthesis of a superhydrophobic surface with modified hollow silica nanoparticles

Abstract

We herein report a simple and effective method to fabricate superhydrophobic coatings by grafting polystyrene (PS) onto the vinyltriethoxysilane modified hollow silica nanoparticles (HSNs) using free radical polymerization. The resulting products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy, confirming that the PS successfully grafted onto the vinyl-modified HSNs via a covalent bond. The morphological structure of HSN film, investigated by SEM, showed a characteristic rough structure. Surface wetting properties of the HSN films were evaluated by measuring the water contact angle and the sliding angle using a contact angle goniometer, which were measured to be 158° and 6°, respectively. Moreover, the classic and the modified Cassie–Baxter relations were applied on the HSN films to verify the superhydrophobic performance.