Fabrication and superhydrophobic property of ZnO micro/nanocrystals via a hydrothermal route

Abstract

Superhydrophobic ZnO micro/nanocrystals were fabricated on a large scale using a facile one-pot hydrothermal process successfully. The morphologies and chemical composition of as-synthesized ZnO were investigated by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The morphology of ZnO products changed from uniform size microrods to flower-like micronanostructures, when the temperature changed from 120°C to 180°C. The morphology of ZnO was strongly affected by the pH. The wettability of the as-synthesized ZnO micro/nanocrystals was studied by measuring water contact angle (CA). The largest static CA for water is 167°, which is closely related to both the ZnO micro/nanostructure and chemical modification. Furthermore, the as-prepared ZnO surface showed superhydrophobicity for some corrosive liquids such as basic and acidic aqueous solutions. The CAs of the surface modified with ZnO prepared at 160°C were over 155° in the range of pH = 1-13. © 2014 Chunmei Xiao et al.