Fabrication of superhydrophobic surface from binary micro-/nano-structure of mullite-whisk-based films

The wettability of solid surface is a very important property of materials, which depends on both surface chemical composition and the geometry of the solid surface. We herein report a simple and inexpensive method to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces with the use of mullite whisks (MWs) for the first time. Binary micro-/nano-structural surfaces were created by the incorporation of hydrophilic needlelike MWs with poly(gamma-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane) to exhibit hydrophobic behavior, which further showed superhydrophobicity with water contact angle of 152.4 +/- 2(a similar to) after modified with stearic acid. The wettability variation from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity and superhydrophobicity during the assembly process are discussed based on the scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and contact-angle system. The superhydrophobicity of the surface could be attributed to the hierarchical microstructure of the rough surface induced by MWs and low surface energy of stearic acid.