Hydrophobic recovery in ultrathin PDMS-coated long and short silicon nanowires

Abstract The ability to modify the contact angle (CA) of water on silicon has applications ranging from thermal management of electronics to miniaturized biomedical devices. Here, we report ∼30 ± 1° variation in superhydrophobic CA on silicon nanowires (NWs) coated with few nm of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), using a simple and stable plasma treatment. The variation in CA arises from choosing NWs of different lengths. We characterize the surfaces using a combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and other techniques. Together with CA available from similar treatment on bulk silicon, it is possible to non-lithographically create regions of diverse CA, from ∼5 to 149 ± 1°.