Annealing Effect of Glancing Angle Electron Beam Deposited TiO₂/In₂O₃ Nanowires Array on Surface Wettability

TiO₂/In₂O₃ nanowire (NW) array are prepared using catalyst free glancing angle deposition technique. The wettability of TiO₂/In₂O₃ NW surface are tuned and controlled by the annealing treatment without altering the surface with additional chemical coating. The phase change, surface roughness, change in static and dynamic contact angles due to the heat treatment are studied. Moreover, the surface properties such as frictional force and work of adhesion are calculated for all the samples. The samples annealed at 600 °C shows nearly superhydrophilic with static water contact angle of 12°, frictional force of 85.00748 µN and work of adhesion of 142.3721 mN/m. The surface of TiO₂/In₂O₃ NW is controlled to attain desired water contact angles and sliding angles, which is paramount for designing practical application in self-cleaning, electronic and biomedical fields.