Silane decorated metallic nanorods for hydrophobic applications

A novel technique to modify a metallic surface for anti-icing applications is presented. An oblique angle deposition (OAD) technique has been used to fabricate metallic nanorods of Aluminum and Tungsten on a glass substrate. A conformal coating of a silane has been applied using a molecular vapor deposition technique. The resulting surface has shown a static contact angle of 1348 with the water droplet. SEM, AFM and XPS have been used to study the surface modification. This is a highly promising approach for anti-icing applications due to its scalability at a very low cost. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 501 569 8067; fax: +1 501 683 7601. ** Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 501 683 7456; fax: +1 501 683 7601. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G.K. Kannarpady), [email protected] (A.S. Biris).