A facile approach to superhydrophobic LiAl-layered double hydroxide film on Al-Li alloy substrate

A highly oriented LiAl-layered double hydroxide (LDH) film was first fabricated via a facile in situ growth method on Al-Li alloy. The morphology and structure of the LDH film were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy. After chemical modification with 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorodecyltrimethoxysilane, the chemical compositions and states of surface-modified film were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results showed that the nest-like structure of LiAl-LDH film was composed of interconnected LiAl-LDH nanosheets, which oriented almost vertically to the substrate surface. After chemical modification, a superhydrophobic surface was obtained with water contact angle of 168 degrees. The formation mechanism of the superhydrophobic film was also discussed.