Tuning omniphobicity via morphological control of metal-organic framework functionalized surfaces

Fabrication of microstructures for imparting omniphobicity to a surface generally requires the use of lithographic techniques and specialized equipment. We report instead a simple strategy for the synthesis of microstructured surfaces via metal–organic framework (MOF) self-assembly. Our method allows us to localize epitaxial growth of MOF at the tips of needle crystals to create mushroom-shaped structures, thus conferring re-entrant textures to the MOF-functionalized surfaces. These structures synthesized via wet chemistry were found to have omniphobic properties due to the resulting re-entrant texture.