Nickel nano-particles were deposited on an etched porous aluminum membrane template by electroless deposition without activation and sensitization to fabricate Ni micro-arrays. The increase in material surface roughness makes the surface of the Ni micro-arrays superhydrophilic with a water contact angle of 0 degrees. Subsequently, the micro-arrays are made superhydrophobic with a water contact angle of 164 +/- 2 degrees via modification by 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (FAS-17). The superhydrophobic Ni microarrays have a very low surface energy of 1.62 mJ m(-2) as compared to the 73.51 mJ m(-2) of superhydrophilic Ni micro-arrays. The three-dimensional bump structure formed over the top edge of the pillars of Ni micro-arrays after modification with FAS-17 is hypothesized to be a nearly optimum superhydrophobic structure. Thus, the synthesized superhydrophobic Ni micro-arrays exhibit excellent self-cleaning properties. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.