Superhydrophobic Micro/Nano Dual-Scale Structures

Abstract

In this paper, we present superhydrophobic micro/nano dual structures (MNDS). By KOH-etching of silicon, well-designed microstructures, including inverted pyramids and V-shape grooves, are first fabricated with certain geometry sizes. Nanostructures made of high-compact high-aspect-ratio nanopillars are then formed atop microstructures by an improved controllable deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process without masks, thus forming MNDS. Resulting from both the minimized liquid-solid contact area and the fluorocarbon layer atop deposited during the DRIE process, the MNDS show a reliable superhydrophobicity. The contact angle and contact angle hysteresis are -165 degrees and less than 1 degrees, respectively. This superhydrophobicity of MNDS is very stable according to squeezing and dropping test, even in high voltage conditions with the electrowetting threshold voltage of -300 V. Therefore, this micro/nano dual-scale structure has strong potential applications to the self-cleaning surface and superhydrophobic micro/nano fluidics.