Tuning wettability of TiO2 thin film by photocatalytic deposition of 3D flower- and hedgehog-like Au nano- and microstructures

• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.147795
• Publication Date: 2020-09-07T15:10:04Z
• Authors: Josiah Shondo; Salih Veziroglu; Dominik Stefan; Yogendra Kumar Mi...; Thomas Strunskus; Franz Faupel; Oral Cenk Aktas
• Keywords: Superhydrophilicity; Deposition; Lotus effect

Abstract We propose a two-steps photocatalytic deposition method to synthesize hierarchical Au nano- and microstructures on TiO2 surface. While the first deposition leads to the formation of flower-like Au microstructures on a highly active TiO2 thin film, needle-like sharp Au nanostructures are grown on the former Au microstructures after the second deposition. TiO2 surface decorated with hierarchical Au structures exhibits a superhydrophilic state with a contact angle (CA) below 5°. After the modification of Au-TiO2 surface by octadecyl-phosphonic acid (ODP)-self-assembly monolayer (SAM), an extreme water-repellency (with CA > 163°) is achieved which retains its stability even after multiple low-high temperature cycles. The spatially controlled photocatalytic decomposition of OPD-SAM on TiO2 thin film allows a superhydrophilic-superhydrophobic patterning which may open lot of application avenues in microfluidics, oil-water separation including in water harvesting technologies.