Large scale synthesis of silane functionalized near-superhydrophobic aluminium hydroxide particles via facile surface grafting technique

Abstract

Herein, we report a facile, large-scale synthesis approach to develop near-superhydrophobic crystalline single phase aluminium hydroxide (Al(OH)3/AH) particles via surface-grafting mediated functionalization using vinyltrimethoxysilane. The obtained XRD pattern and ATR-IR spectrum of the functionalized-AH (F-AH) showed the characteristic peaks corresponding to the existence of silane. The room temperature water contact angle (WCA) measurements revealed that the hydrophilic surface of AH (32.2°) is switched to near-superhydrophobic surface after the functionalization with WCA of 137.4°. Furthermore, the temperature dependent WCA studies at lower (∼10 °C), middle (∼50 °C) and higher temperatures (∼80/90 °C) showed that the silane-functionalization is stable and provides temperature independent near-superhydrophobic surface.