Superhydrophobic behavior achieved from hydrophilic surfaces

The superhydrophobic behavior of a surface can be generally attributed to the combination of its chemical composition and microscale texture. The surface can be both hydrophobic and rough, and the roughness enhances its hydrophobicity. For a natural or artificial surface, superhydrophobic behavior is generally induced by a structured hydrophobic surface. This paper proposes an alternative; that is the superhydrophobic behavior can be obtained from a structured hydrophilic surface. The superhydrophobic behavior of a T-shape micropillar surface coated with diamond-like carbon has been achieved, which experimentally proved the proposed hypothesis that superhydrophobicity can be created from a hydrophilic surface through surface microstructure modification.