Facile transformation of superhydrophobicity to hydrophilicity by silica/poly(ɛ-caprolactone) composite film

Abstract A smart surface with thermo-responsive wettability was fabricated on the cross section of wood with simple bench chemistry. The surface showed fast response between superhydrophobic and hydrophilic under different temperatures. The reversible wettability from superhydrophobicity to hydrophilicity can be easily achieved by adjusting the temperature between 25 and 60 °C. This reversible wettability is resulted from the synergistic effect of the crystallinity transition of the polymer coated on the surface and the optimized roughness controlled by the silica particles with different sizes. Furthermore, the modified wood surface showed an excellent chemical stability to corrosive liquids under ambient conditions.