Self-Assembly of a Superhydrophobic ZnO Nanorod Arrays Film on Wood Surface Using a Hydrothermal Method

Abstract

To prohibit wood hygroscopicity, changing naturally hydrophilic wood surface into hydrophobic surface is essential. To achieve this goal, one possible approach is to coat nanostructured metal oxides on wood surface. In this study, wood surface coated by ZnO nanorod arrsys (ZNAs) was successfully fabricated using a hydrothermal method with subsequent modification by a thin layer of n-dodecyltrimethoxysilane (DTMS). SEM images showed uniformly large-scale ZNAs were grown onto the wood surface. XRD patterns confirmed that the ZNAs were the hexagonal wurtzite phase. The wettability of the ZNAs modified wood sample was evaluated by water contact angle (WCA) measurements. The ZNAs modified wood was found to exhibit superhydrophobicity with a WCA of about 156° and a sliding angle of around 2°, which could resulted from the proper surface roughness and lower surface energy. These results demonstrated that hydrothermal method was a feasible method to create superhydrophobic wood.