Superhydrophobic Surface Elaboration Using Plasma Polymerization of Hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO)

This study concerns the elaboration of a superhydrophobic coating on an aluminium alloy substrate by means of surface anodization and plasma polymerization. First, anodizing was used to create a micro/nanostructured aluminium oxide layer on the aluminium alloy substrate. Then, the resulting rough surface was coated with a plasma-polymerized hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) film. The effects of several processing parameters such as input RF power (30 to 60 W) and deposition time (5 to 35 min), on the hydrophobic properties of the resulting films were investigated. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FT-IR) analysis showed the important effect of the plasma power charge on the intensity of Si-CH3 band which effectively influences the hydrophobic character of the coating. The static contact angle of the superhydrophobic film was also evaluated at low temperature, which showed that hydrophobicity of the coating was reduced at low temperature.