  Nanostructures are commonly used for developing superhydrophobic surfaces.
However, available wetting theoretical models ignore the effect of vacuum
photon-modes alteration on van der Waals forces and thus on hydrophobicity.
Using first-principle calculations, we show that superhydrophibicity of
nanostructured surfaces is dramatically enhanced by vacuum photon-modes tuning.
As a case study, wetting contact angles of a water droplet above a polyethylene
nanostructured surface are obtained from the interaction potential energy
calculated as function of the droplet-surface separation distance. This new
approach could pave the way for the design of novel superhydrophobic coatings.
