PVP-assisted Synthesis of TiO2 Nanospheres and their Application to the Preparation of Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Naranchimeg Munkhbaatar; Ilhwan Ryu; Dasom Park; Sanggyu Yim

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Applied Science and Convergence Technology 2015; 24(6): 219-223

Published online November 30, 2015

https://doi.org/10.5757/ASCT.2015.24.6.219

PVP-assisted Synthesis of TiO2 Nanospheres and their Application to the Preparation of Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Naranchimeg Munkhbaatar , Ilhwan Ryu , Dasom Park , and Sanggyu Yim^*

Department of Chemistry, Kookmin University, Seoul 136-702, South Korea

Correspondence to:Sanggyu Yim sgyim@kookmin.ac.kr

Received: October 24, 2015; Revised: October 30, 2015; Accepted: October 31, 2105

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Abstract

Enhancement of the surface hydrophobicity of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) thin films deposited on substrates covered with titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanospheres was studied. First, a low-temperature solution-phase method using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a surface capping agent and a water/dimethylformamide (DMF) mixture as the reaction medium was used to synthesize monodisperse TiO₂ nanospheres. It was possible to easily control hydrolysis rate of the Ti-precursors and the size of the synthesized nanospheres by varying the amount of PVP and the volume ratio of the solvent mixture. Spray coating of the synthesized TiO₂ nanospheres under the PDMS film increased the water contact angle of the film surface to 150.3°. This simple treatment can modify the surface morphology at a nanometer scale without any long or complicated nanoprocess; hence, the surface enters the superhydrophobic Cassie- Baxter regime.

Keywords: Polyvinylpyrrolidone, TiO2 nanospheres, Superhydrophobicity, Spray coating