Construct hierarchical superhydrophobic silicon surfaces by chemical etching

We present a simple approach for preparing hydrophobic silicon surfaces by constructing silicon nanowire arrays using Ag-assisted chemical etching without low-surface-energy material modification. The static and dynamic wetting properties of the nanostructured surfaces and their dependence on etching conditions were studied. It was revealed that the surface topologies of silicon nanowire arrays and their corresponding wetting properties could be tuned by varying the etching time. Under optimized etching conditions, superhydrophobic surfaces with an apparent contact angle larger than 150° and a sliding angle smaller than 10° were achieved due to the formation of a hierarchical structure. The origin of hydrophobic behavior was discussed based on Wenzel and Cassie models. In addition, the effects of surface modification of Si surface nanostructures on their hydrophobic characteristics were also investigated. © 2011 American Scientific Publishers.