A novel approach was used to grow nanostructured Teflon-like superhydrophobic coatings on stainless steel (SS). In this method Teflon tailings were pyrolyzed to generate fluorocarbon precursor molecules, and an expanding plasma arc (EPA) was used to polymerize these precursors to deposit Teflon-like coating. The coating shows super hydrophobic behavior with water contact angle (WCA) of 165 degrees. The coating was observed to be uniform. It consists of nanostructured (similar to 80-200 nm) features, which were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. The chemical bond state of the film was determined by XPS and FTIR, which indicate the dominance of -CF2 groups in the deposited coating. The combination of nanofeature induced surface roughness and the low surface energy imparted by Teflon-like coating is responsible for the observed superhydrophobic nature. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.