Superhydrophobicity on Silver Nanoplates

Representations of water droplets on a GaAs substrate covered with the Ag nanoplates; as featured on back cover of the journal issue

Gallium arsenide wafers decorated with silver nanoplates result in composite surfaces of varying hydrophobocity. CNM researchers and collaborators at Clemson have accomplished this in part by coating the silver nanoplates with self-assembled monolayers of alkyl thiol molecules. By carefully controlling reaction conditions, the size, thickness, and surface roughness of the individual silver nanoplates are tuned to produce different topographic structures and roughness of the composite surfaces. This in turn influences the surface hydrophobicity. The composite surfaces also exhibit different wetting states, such as the Wenzel wetting state, Cassie impregnating wetting state, and Cassie nonwetting state.

Detailed relationships between surface structure and hydrophobic states are discussed in the journal article: "Facile Tuning of Superhydrophobic States with Ag Nanoplates," Yugang Sun and Rui Qiao, Nano Research, 1(3), September 2008 (online)