Bioinspired Superhydrophobic Surfaces ─ Advances and Applications With Metallic and Inorganic Materials

Materials with superhydrophobic or related properties are one of the most studied subjects from a theoretical point of view and also for the large range of possible applications, for example, anticorrosion, antibacteria, optical devices, and sensors. The study of natural species with special wettability has shown us the importance of surface structures and the surface energy of the resulting surface properties. Various strategies can be used to reproduce superhydrophobic phenomena in the laboratory. General reviews on superhydrophobic properties already exist but, to our knowledge, do not focus on metallic and inorganic materials. Here, we focus especially on the strategies implemented for reaching superhydrophobic or related properties using metallic and inorganic materials. Indeed, these materials present unique properties, for example, thermal and mechanical resistance, chemical and ageing resistance, and optical (transparency, antireflection, photoluminescence) and electrical properties (conducting, semiconducting, insulating).

This book will be useful for graduate students of materials chemistry and physics and for researchers in surface science, nanostructures, and bioinspired or biomimetic materials.

Thierry Darmanin is an associate professor at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France, under the supervision of Dr. Frederic Guittard. Dr. Darmanin’s research interests focus on superhydrophobic and superoleophobic surfaces, the electrochemical processes of deposition, and bioinspired and biomimetic materials and systems. He has coauthored more than 100 journal papers.

Frederic Guittard is a full professor at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (Surfaces and Interfaces team), with more than 25 years of experience in organic and fluorine chemistry, surfaces and interfaces, bioinspired and advanced materials, and surface wettability. His present research interests include bioinspired and biobased chemistry and materials. He has coauthored more than 200 journal papers and attended more than 60 international conferences as an invited speaker.