Study on superhydrophobic surfaces of octanol grafted electrospun silica nanofibers

• Superhydrophobic surface was prepared from electrospinning SNFs and by grafting octanol on their surface.
• The surface of SNFs changed from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic.
• The CA of MSNFs became 150.2° because of interactions between grafted octyl groups.

In this work, superhydrophobic surfaces were successfully prepared by grafting of octanol on the surface of electrospun silica nanofibers (SNFs). The chemical compositions and microstructures of the prepared SNFs surfaces were investigated by using N2 full isotherms, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and contact angle measurements. The results indicate that the surface of SNFs changed from being superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic by octanol surface grafting. The contact angle of the octanol-grafted SNFs was close to 150.2° because their surface was modified by –(CH2)6–CH3 groups. The 3D network of SNFs networks and the low surface energy of the alkyl side chains played important roles in creating the superhydrophobic surface of the SNFs.