Different wetting behavior of alkyl- and fluorocarbon-terminated films based on cupric hydroxide nanorod quasi-arrays

Nanorods of cupric hydroxide (Cu(OH)2) crystals with a diameter of about 100–500 nm and length of about tens of micrometers were directly fabricated on copper foils by alkali assistant surface oxidation technique. It was found that chemical modification with stearic acid (STA) or 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (PDES) led to significant increase in the contact angles of the Cu(OH)2 nanorod quasi-array film, which could be related to the chemical modification and the roughened structure of the film surfaces. Compared with STA-modified surface, PDES-modified surface had a lower contact angle hysteresis (CAH) and adhesion for water droplets, possibly due to lower surface free energy of PDES than STA.