SURFACES FOR WATER MANAGEMENT

Functionalization methods developed in this research line enable us to induce superhydrophilicity or superhydrophobicity on any surface. These approaches rely on sol-gel chemistry and hydrothermal synthesis, using inorganic materials (e.g. TiO2, SiO2 or ZnO) and hybrid organic-inorganic ones (e.g. hexadecyltrimethoxysilane). This skill is now exploited to develop new original approaches. For instance, a simplified photolithography method enables us to spatially control the surface wettability at the sub-millimetre scale. We also develop nanostructured composite membranes by infiltrating nanostructures with polymers. Such membrane may overcome the trade-off between permeability and selectivity, thus achieving highly efficient water purification while preventing biofouling on the membrane surfaces.











Wettability contrasts on a same surface (insets represent a side view of water droplets) (a), ZnO nanowires impregnated by polystyrene for membrane applications (b), persistent superhydrophobic surface inspired by the lotus leaf morphology (inset) (c). 

David Riassetto
(David.Riassetto@grenoble-inp.fr)

• Functional materials by vapour chemical growth techniques scalable to large area
• Wet Chemistry & Surface Functionalization
• Transparent Conducting Materials
• Nanostructures for Chemical and Biological Sensors​​​​​​​