A combination of UV/ozone and vacuum pyrolysis treatments is introduced to tune the wetting properties of vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube arrays. The UV/ozone treatment renders these arrays superhydrophilic by functionalizing them with oxygenated functional groups. These superhydrophilic arrays have a high affinity to water such that they have a very high specific capacitance in ...

Dense and vertically aligned ZnO nanorod arrays with a large area have been fabricated successfully on the stainless steel mesh by a simple chemical vapor deposition method. The coated mesh exhibited both superoleophilic and superhydrophobic properties, even if it was not modified by low surface energy materials. The separation efficiencies were more than 97% in the filtration of water and oil....

Homogeneous catalysts usually show higher catalytic activities than heterogeneous catalysts because of their high dispersion of catalytically active sites. We demonstrate here that heterogeneous catalysts of ionic liquids functionalized on superhydrophobic mesoporous polymers exhibit much higher activities in transesterification to form biodiesel than homogeneous catalysts of the ionic liquids ...

This paper describes the fabrication of surfaces with different wettability, superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic, and pH-responsive properties. We used a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of a dendron thiol as the underlying surface for electrodeposition of gold nanostructures. After this modification with a SAM of n-dodecanethiol or 11-mercaptoundecanol, the surface shows remarkable superhydrophobi...

We have developed a straightforward method to tune the wettability of an aluminum substrate within a contact angle (CA) range from 2(°) to 170(°) by chemical deposition in CuCl2 solution and fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) modification. The CA of the as-deposited surface decreases with deposition time due to the growth of fractal copper dendrites, which enhance the surface roughness significantly. Afte...

We demonstrate that the equilibrium shape of the composite interface between superhydrophobic surfaces and drops in the superhydrophobic Cassie state under electrowetting is determined by the balance of the Maxwell stress and the Laplace pressure. Energy barriers due to pinning of contact lines at the edges of the hydrophobic pillars control the transition from the Cassie to the Wenzel state. B...

We report the synthesis of superhydrophobic coatings for steel using carbon nanotube (CNT)-mesh structures. The CNT coating maintains its structural integrity and superhydrophobicity even after exposure to extreme thermal stresses and has excellent thermal and electrical properties. The coating can also be reinforced by optimally impregnating the CNT-mesh structure with cross-linked polymers wi...

Superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic properties of chemically-modified graphene have been achieved in larger-area vertically aligned few-layer graphene nanosheets (FLGs), prepared on Si (111) substrate by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD). Furthermore, in order to enhance wettability, silicon wafers with microstructures were fabricated, on which graphene nanosheets were grown ...

Through the amide formation between amine-functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) and oxygen-containing groups (e.g., epoxy and carboxyl groups) in graphene oxide (GO), we have synthesized POSS-functionalized graphene nanosheets (POSS-graphene), which are highly soluble in various organic solvents attractive for multifunctional applications. Thin films from solution casting o...

This paper presents the details of a novel battery architecture based on superhydrophobic nanostructured materials. Both electrodes of a battery are formed on nanostructured silicon surfaces that are subsequently treated to make them superhydrophobic, effectively separating the liquid electrolyte from the active electrode materials. A phenomenon called electrowetting that promotes electrolyte p...