Silver mirror reaction as an approach to construct superhydrophobic surfaces with high reflectivity

Superhydrophobic surfaces with high reflectivity might provide a promising self-cleaning approach in a wide variety of optical applications ranging from traffic to solar energy industries. However, the contradiction between the hierarchical micronanostructure and the high reflectivity is a challenge for superhydrophobic materials with high reflectivity. Here we report a facile method to fabricate a superhydrophobic silver film with reflectivity as high as that of polished silicon by carefully controlling the seed-induced silver mirror reaction.