Tuning the wettability on La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 coatings from superhydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity by hierarchical microstructure.

It is well known that surface roughness always enhances wetting for hydrophilic, but drying for hydrophobic surfaces. In this letter, the authors found that La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 coatings display distinct wettability from superhydrophilicity to superhydrophobictiy, which is tuned by their hierarchical microstructures obtained by annealing the coatings composed of nanopowder at different temperatures. This offers a strong support to Herminghaus’s model [Europhys. Lett. 52, 165 (2000)] which predicts that the material hierarchical structure determines its wettability and widens the range of raw materials for superhydrophobic surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]