Transparent superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic coatings for self-cleaning and anti-fogging

The high transparent superhydrophobic surface covered with hollow spheres has been fabricated through a carbon template route. The as-prepared coating without treating with low surface energy materials showed superhdrophilic and anti-fogging properties while displayed superhydrophobic characteristics after surface modification. Furthermore, such superhydrophilic/superhydrophobic glasses both exhibited a relatively high transmittance, and it is also demonstrated that the thickness of coating affects the transmittance and wettability from a control experiment. For comparison, we studied the anti-fogging properties of the transparent superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic, and the ordinary glass, showing absolutely different fogging characteristics. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4737167]