Abstract
In the present work, we study the wetting behavior of TiO2 nanotube layers using droplets of ionic liquids. This allows us to examine the wetting characteristics under the vacuum conditions of a scanning electron microscope and, therefore, with a very high local resolution. From the results, it is evident that as-formed nanotubes are superhydrophilic; however, strange preferential wetting takes place in the intertubular space. Furthermore, results with octadecyl silane (ODS)-coated tubes show the expected superhydrophobic behavior but also show that an E-beam-induced chain scission mechanism can be initiated similar to classical pseudo-photocatalytic effects. (C) 2010 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3413928] All rights reserved.