Superhydrophobicity of Self-Organized Surfaces of Polymer Nanowire Arrays Fabricated by a Nano-Injection Moulding Technique

Abstract

We report on the superhydrophobicity of self-organized surfaces of polyethylene (PE) nanowire arrays that are fabricated by a nano-injection moulding technique. The highly-aligned PE nanofibers with high aspect ratio are formed after the infiltration of polymer melts into the alumina nanopores by wetting action and fluid vibrational perturbation. The self-organized surfaces of polymer nanowire arrays are found to have micro-to-nanoscale hierarchical nanostructures, and have superhydrophobicity of >150° contact angles. The present superhydrophobic surfaces may be quite promising due to its simple but massive production with high quality.

Keywords

• superhydrophobicity
• contact angle
• nanostructure surface
• nanowire array
• nano-injection moulding technique