Development of hydrophobicity of mica surfaces by ion beam sputtering

The hydrophilic mica surface can be made hydrophobic by low energy Ar+ ion sputtering. The ion sputtering leads to both topographical and physicochemical changes of the surface which are thought to be responsible for the water repelling behavior. The sessile drop method is used to evaluate the wetting properties of the sputtered mica surfaces. It has been shown that the sputter-pattern at the nano-length scale has little influence on the development of hydrophobicity. On the other hand, the wettability appears to be strongly connected with the chemistry of the bombarded surface. We have also studied the temporal evolution of contact angle as the water evaporates due to difference in vapor pressures between the droplet surface and the surroundings. The analysis offers a simple method to estimate the diffusion coefficient of water vapor.