A reticulate superhydrophobic self-assembly structure prepared by ZnO nanowires

A simple hydrothermal self-assembly method was adopted to grow a newly reported superhydrophobic reticulate ZnO film with papillary nodes. The formation mechanism has also been explained by the tension junction model. This structure can extremely enhance the dewettability for the surface modification with low-surface-energy materials such as long chain fluorinated organic compounds. The surfaces of the ZnO thin film were superhydrophobic with a contact angle (CA) of 170 degrees +/- 1 degrees, while the sliding angle (SA) is 2 degrees. The samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).