Strong and super-hydrophobic hybrid carbon nanotube films with superior loading capacity

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surface has attracted enormous interests due to its attractive potential applications. Here, we prepare all carbon nanotube hybrid films simply by depositing multi-walled carbon nanotubes on strong single-walled carbon nanotube films through vacuum filtration. The hybrid films behave some exciting superhydrophobic properties of a large water contact angle of 152° and an ultra-low sliding angle of only 2°. The rebounding height of a water droplet dipping from 5 cm above the hybrid film reaches 9.4 mm, which is 3 times that of on the natural lotus leaf. The superhydrophobic hybrid film also have high specific loading capacity of 627 g/g, more than 12 times that of the natural lotus leaf. The hybrid films can mimic lotus leaf in water repelling, self-cleaning, and carrying heavy things quite well.