Abstract
Wetting properties of metals are fundamentally important in applications such as catalysis, solar energy conversion, and fuel cells. Complete wetting of transition metal surfaces by water is ascertained due to their high surface energy. On flat metal surfaces, zero contact angles (CAs) can only be observed on ultra-clean metal surfaces, while finite CAs are measured as soon as the surface is contaminated. However, it is not clear whether or not the hydrophilicity of a nanostructured metal surface can be maintained. Here, we design a series of experiments to test the hydrophilicity of nickel nanorods with heights ranging from 50 to 600 nm. We observe that all of our samples are initially superhydrophilic, but reduce their hydrophilicity over a time period of three months. Airborne hydrocarbon is believed to be the reason for the reducing hydrophilicity. A theory based on the Cassie–Baxter model is constructed to explain our observations in experiment.
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