Plasma-Assisted Interface Engineering of Boron Nitride Nanostructure Films

Today many aspects of science and technology are progressing into the nanoscale realm where surfaces and interfaces are intrinsically important in determining properties and performances of materials and devices. One familiar phenomenon in which interfacial interactions play a major role is the wetting of solids. In this work we use a facile one-step plasma method to control the wettability of boron nitride (BN) nanostructure films via covalent chemical functionalization, while their surface morphology remains intact. By tailoring the concentration of grafted hydroxyl groups, superhydrophilic, hydrophilic, and hydrophobic patterns are created on the initially superhydrophobic BN nanosheet and nanotube films. Moreover, by introducing a gradient of the functional groups, directional liquid spreading toward increasing [OH] content is achieved on the films. The resulting insights are meant to illustrate great potentials of this method to tailor wettability of ceramic films, control liquid flow patterns for engineering applications such as microfluidics and biosensing, and improve the interfacial contact and adhesion in nanocomposite materials.