Facile fabrication of large-scale stable superhydrophobic surfaces with carbon sphere films by burning rapeseed oil

Stable anti-corrosive superhydrophobic surfaces were successfully prepared with the carbon nanosphere films by means of depositing the soot of burning rapeseed oil. The method is extremely cheap, facile, time-saving and avoided any of the special equipments, special reagents and complex process control. The method is suitable for the large-scale preparation of superhydrophobic surface and the substrate can be easily changed. The as-prepared surfaces showed stable superhydrophobicity and anti-corrosive property even in many corrosive solutions, such as acidic or basic solutions over a wide pH range. The as-prepared superhydrophobic surface was carefully characterized by the field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope to confirm the synergistic binary geometric structures at micro-and nanometer scale. This result will open a new avenue in the superhydrophobic paint research with these easily obtained carbon nanospheres in the near future. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.