Abstract:In this study, octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) has been used to replace fluoro-silanes which are much more expensive than OTS. In order to improve the mechanical and adhesive properties of coating layers, inorganic binders were separately synthesized based on sol-gel reaction in acidic condition. Since the synthesized silica nanoparticles gave only nano-scaled roughness, superhydrophobicity is not well obtained. Here, we present a new simple approach by intentionally inducing particle aggregation in the solution which is controlled by adjusting solvent amount. With selecting suitable sizes of silica nanoparticles, superhydrophobic surfaces were obtained with increasing the amount of organic solvents after surface hydrophobization using OTS, and an extremely water-repellent behavior was observed with zero sliding angle. This superhydrophobicity was achived only for the dielectric constant lower than 25, regardless of the composition of solvent, meaning that the dielectric constant could be an excellent indicator for fabricating superhydrobic surfaces induced by particle aggregation in the solution.