Synthesis of discrete alkyl-silica hybrid nanowires and their assembly into nanostructured superhydrophobic membranes

We report the synthesis of highly flexible and mechanically robust hybrid silica nanowires (NWs) which can be used as novel building blocks to construct superhydrophobic functional materials with three-dimensional macroporous networks. The hybrid silica NWs, with an average diameter of 80 nm and tunable length of up to 12 μm, are prepared by anisotropic deposition of the hydrolyzed tetraethylorthosilicate in water/n-pentanol emulsions. A mechanistic investigation reveals that the trimethoxy(octadecyl)silane introduced to the water-oil interface in the synthesis plays key roles in stabilizing the water droplets to sub-100 nm and also growing a layer of octadecyl groups on the NW surface. This work opens a solution-based route for the one-pot preparation of monodisperse, hydrophobic silica NWs and represents an important step toward the bottom-up construction of 3D superhydrophobic materials and macroporous membranes.