Composition of Organically Modified Silica for the Superhydrophobic Surface with Low Sliding Angle

Extremely water-repellent surfaces with low sliding angle (SA) have been obtained with a facile single-step sol-gel strategy via co-condensation of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) in basic media with an efficient self-cleaning property. We investigated the effect of the molar ratio of HDTMS and TEOS on the properties of the modified silica-coated poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film. A high water contact angle (WCA) of 165° and a low SA of 1.35° were obtained at a molar ratio of 0.125. The dual roughness pattern for the low SA was developed by a one-step coating of the modified silica with a molar ratio of 0.125. The evolution of the surface to the dual roughness pattern by nonequilibrium dynamics depended on the size and shape factor of modified silica. The primitive size and the shape factor of the organosilica with a molar ratio of 0.125 were 70 nm and 0.65, respectively. We also presented a new method to determine the superficial surface friction (ζ) of the superhydrophobic surface. The ζ was a physical parameter that characterized the slip and rolling behavior of water droplets on the superhydrophobic surface along with the equilibrium property WCA and the static frictional property SA.