Superhydrophobic Au/polymer nanocomposite films via AACVD/swell encapsulation tandem synthesis procedure

A synthetic route is presented for creating well-attached Au/polymer nanocomposite thin films on glass which exhibit superhydrophobicity. Such films have been demonstrably difficult to synthesise by established means. The synthetic route devised here affords great control over the functional, physical and chemical properties of the end product. A superhydrophobic PDMS thin film is deposited on a glass substrate by aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD), then gold nanoparticles are incorporated by swelling the polymer film in a dispersion of the nanoparticles in toluene, which diffuse into the polymer and become embedded upon drying. Characterisation of the nanoparticles and resultant composite films are carried out using electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and water droplet contact angle measurements.