Super-hydrophobic property of nano-sized cupric oxide films

Nano-sized cupric oxide (CuO) films with biomimetic super-hydrophobic surfaces were fabricated by isothermally oxidizing nano-sized Cu films prepared by electroless plating on smooth glass substrate following modification with octadecanethiol (CH3-(CH2)(17)-SH). The microstructure characterization showed that CuO films with 54 nm thickness have a dual-scale structure consisting of the 150-200 nm agglomerates composed of the 30-50 nm granules, a similar structure to lotus-leaf. The measurement of wettability showed that CuO films modified with octadecanethiol exhibit a super-hydrophobic property with a water contact angle of similar to 154 degrees. The mechanism leading to the super-hydrophobic property of CuO films was also analyzed based on the results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.