Study on the hydrophobic surfaces prepared by two-step sol–gel process

In this study, the two-step sol–gel process was used to prepare hydrophobic coating films on the glass substrates. The first step was to add hydrogen chloride into TEOS (tetraethoxysilane) solution, and then the second step was to add ammonia into the above reacted solution. We adopted different amount of hydrogen chloride and ammonia to control the sol–gel reaction and observed the change of the viscosity, gelatin period of the solution and contact angles of the coating films. By this method, we created a surface with roughness and then the hydroxyl groups were terminated by adding trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) to produce a hydrophobic coating layer. The amount of the acid, base and water added in the solution influenced the reaction rate and resulted in the aggregation and condensation of the particles to form rough surfaces. Consequently, the rough surfaces made by aggregation and condensation of the large particles, which were modified by TMCS resulted in higher contact angles (>140°). In this study, a surface with contact angle 150° was obtained.