A one-step method to fabricate lotus leaves-like ZnO film

Superhydrophobic surface is commonly fabricated by a combination of micro- and nano-scale structure and low surface energy materials. In this paper we fabricated a lotus leaves-like ZnO nano-forest surface by alkaline hydrothermal method, and the formation of micro- and nano-scale structured surface is controlled by the growth of the ZnO nanoseed layer. The growing ZnO nano-forest exhibits a perfect superhydrophilicity with a low water droplet CA about 1 degrees. After modification with Teflon AF, the surface exhibits a superhyclrophobicity with a water CA above 170 degrees. The method is simply controllable, cost-effective, and has a wide range of potential applications such as self-cleaning superhydrophobic coating on large areas of different substrates. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.