Relationship between the structure and hydrophobic performance of Ni-TiO2 nanocomposite coatings by electrodeposition

In this paper, a nanocomposite electrodeposition method is proposed to prepare hydrophobic surfaces. After further surface modification of a layer of FAS-17,(1) superhydrophobic surfaces were obtained. The electrodeposited composite coatings exhibited thorn-like hierarchical structures with high roughness. Moreover, this binary geometric morphology could be controlled by adjusting current density and electrodeposition time, resulting in a contact angle (CA) as high as 174.9 degrees. Importantly, this method can be easily extended to other materials as long as they are electrically conductive. Since this approach is quite timesaving and cost-effective, it is supposed to have a promising future in industrial fields. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.