AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Thin Film Division Friday Sessions
       Session TF-FrM

Paper TF-FrM4
Aging Effect on the Hydrophilicity of Metal Nanorod Arrays

Friday, November 4, 2011, 9:20 am, Room 110

Session: Thin Films: Growth and Characterization II
Presenter: Dexian Ye, Virginia Commonwealth University
Authors: N. Albarakati, Virginia Commonwealth University
D. Ye, Virginia Commonwealth University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Time dependent wettability of nickel nanorod arrays were studied by measuring the water contact angles on the samples. Nickel nanorods arrays were deposited on silicon substrates by sputtering oblique angle deposition with an 85° incident angle. The substrates are rotated at a speed of 0.5 rps by a stepper motor. Samples with varying nanorod heights were prepared. Water contact angles were measured for each sample on a sequence of time up to three months. The water contact angles on the fresh nanorod arrays are less than 10°. However, the contact angle increases with time after the samples were exposed to air. We observed that the contact angles on the samples with short nanorods increase quickly to an angle close to hydrophobic and that on the samples with long nanorods increase slowly and remain in the hydrophilic region. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was employed to study the change of the surface composition due to oxidation and hydrocarbon contamination. We believe that the change of water contact angles is due to the accumulation of hydrocarbon on the nanorod surface.