Converting
a nonwetting surface to a highly wetting one, aided
by ultraviolet radiation, is well explored. Here, in this work, we
show just the reverse behavior of a copper–copper oxide nanocomposite
surface where ultraviolet radiation turned the superhydrophilic surface
to a superhydrophobic one. This observation is explained both experimentally
and theoretically using first-principles density functional theory-based
calculations considering the metal–oxygen (Cu–O) bond
breaking and related change in surface chemistry. This observation
has further been corroborated with electron irradiation on the same
nanocomposite material. To the best of our knowledge, for the first
time, we show that the radiation-induced breaking of the copper–oxygen
bond makes the nanostructure surface energetically unfavorable for
water adsorption.
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