Micro-and nanostructured silicon-based superomniphobic surfaces

• Multi-scale surface roughness presenting various surface morphologies.
• Fabrication of surfaces via RIE dry etching combined with wet etching or CVD growth of nanowires.
• Low contact angle hysteresis for all tested liquids.
• Stable Cassie–Baxter for low surface tension liquids.

We report on the fabrication of silicon nanostructured superhydrophobic and superoleophobic surfaces also called “superomniphobic” surfaces. For this purpose, silicon interfaces with different surface morphologies, single or double scale structuration, were investigated. These structured surfaces were chemically treated with perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane (PFTS), a low surface energy molecule. The morphology of the resulting surfaces was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Their wetting properties: static contact angle (CA) and contact angle hysteresis (CAH) were investigated using liquids of various surface tensions. Despite that we found that all the different morphologies display a superhydrophobic character (CA > 150° for water) and superoleophobic behavior (CA ≈ 140° for hexadecane), values of hysteresis are strongly dependent on the liquid surface tension and surface morphology. The best surface described in this study was composed of a dual scale texturation i.e. silicon micropillars covered by silicon nanowires. Indeed, this surface displayed high static contact angles and low hysteresis for all tested liquids.

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