Superhydrophobic spiral Co3O4 nanorod arrays

The authors report a facile method for the fabrication of a superhydrophobic surface with spiral Co3O4 nanorod arrays on a glass wafer plated Au. The resulting surface shows superhydrophobicity with a static contact angle of about (162 +/- 1.6)degrees and a sliding angle of around (5 +/- 2)degrees. This functionalized, nanostructured surface provides enhanced understanding of the effect of the surface roughness and solid surface fraction on superhydrophobicity, rendering them well suited for various potential applications such as in catalysts, dyes or inks, coatings, fillers, and microreactors. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.