Preparation of Protonated Titanate Nanotube Films with an Extremely Large Wetting Contrast
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Preparation of Protonated Titanate Nanotube Films with an Extremely Large Wetting Contrast Y. K. Lai1,2, Y. X. Tang1, D. G. Gong1, J. J. Gong2, Y. C. Chen2, C. J. Lin2 and Z. Chen1 1 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore. 2 State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China. [email protected]; [email protected] ABSTRACT A facile anodic electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process has been developed to prepare thin uniform films consisting of titanate nanotubes (TNTs) that were synthesized by a hydrothermal approach. Such an EPD process offers easy control in the film thickness and the adhesion to the substrate was found to be strong. The chemical composition and structure of the products have been characterized by HRTEM, FESEM, XRD and TG/DTA. It was found that the functionalization of TNTs plays a key role on the electrolyte stability and the successful formation of a uniform TNT film with good adhesion. The as-prepared TNT films show exceptional superhydrophilic behavior with ultra-fast spreading, while it converts to superhydrophobicity yet with high adhesion after 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl-triethoxysilane modification. This study provides an interesting method to prepare films with extremely high wettability contrast that are useful for producing different kinds of functional materials. INTRODUCTION In recent years, one dimensional TiO2-based nanostructures, especially self-organized TiO2 nanotube have attracted much attention [1-3] for applications in photovoltaic cells [4-6], environmental purification [7-9], water photolysis [10,11], wettability control [12-14], gas sensor [15,16] and biomedical devices [17,18] due to its unique highly ordered array structure, good mechanical and chemical stability, excellent corrosion resistance and high specific surface area. Since Kasuga et al. firstly reported the fabrication of protonated titanate nanotubes (TNTs) by hydrothermal process at 1998 [19], TNTs had attracted tremendous interest due to its large specific surface area, excellent ion-exchange and intercalation activities. It can be used as absorbents, deodorants, and functional nanoparticle carriers [19-23]. Moreover, TNTs can be transformed to another important material, TiO2 in nanotubular form, which has many important applications in photocatalysis, solar cells and gas sensors [24-27]. Recently, great efforts were focused on the TNT formation mechanism, chemical compositions, and property improvement. However, the issues such as the effective preparation of uniform TNT films with controllable thickness and their wetting properties need to be further investigated [28-31]. Here, we reported a new way to prepare highly dispersed colloidal suspension and applied it to effectively deposit uniform TNT films by a simply EPD process under ambient condition. The as-prepared TNT films show good adhesion to the substrate without annealing post-treatment.
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