Tuning the structure and wetting properties of organic-inorganic nanocomposite coatings prepared by aerosol-assisted atmospheric pressure cold plasma deposition

Dispersions of oleate-capped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in binary n-octane/1,7-octadiene solvent mixtures are injected, in aerosol form, in a dielectric barrier discharge to deposit hydrocarbon polymer/ZnO nanoparticles nanocomposite (NC) thin films at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The chemical composition of the coatings, and in turn their morphology and wettability, can be tuned by simply changing the composition of the starting dispersion. Specifically, the increase of the NPs concentration in the dispersion (0.5–5 wt%) results in a continuous increase of both the ZnO content and deposition rate of the coatings. Moreover, when the concentration of 1,7-octadiene in the solvent mixture is very low (0.5–2 vol%), the incorporation of NPs is further promoted, while at concentrations >2 vol% the growth of the organic component starts to be favored. Overall, results reveal a considerable increase of the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness of the coatings with the ZnO loading. In addition, once the threshold ZnO loading and RMS roughness of 60 wt% and 350 nm are reached, respectively, the coatings are superhydrophobic and exhibit very low water contact angle hysteresis, due to the coexistence of the low surface energy conferred by the hydrocarbon polymer and the hierarchical multiscale surface texture induced by NPs incorporation.