A Rapid One-Step Process for Fabrication of Biomimetic Superhydrophobic Surfaces by Pulse Electrodeposition.

Shuzhen Jiang,Glenn Gyimah,Xiaoying Li,Guixian Liu,Hanshan Dong,Zhongning Guo

doi:10.3390/ma10111229

Shuzhen Jiang, Glenn Gyimah + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10111229

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Abstract

Inspired by some typical plants such as lotus leaves, superhydrophobic surfaces are commonly prepared by a combination of low surface energy materials and hierarchical micro/nano structures. In this work, superhydrophobic surfaces on copper substrates were prepared by a rapid, facile one-step pulse electrodepositing process, with different duty ratios in an electrolyte containing lanthanum chloride (LaCl3·6H2O), myristic acid (CH3(CH2)12COOH), and ethanol. The equivalent electrolytic time was only 10 min. The surface morphology, chemical composition and superhydrophobic property of the pulse electrodeposited surfaces were fully investigated with SEM, EDX, XRD, contact angle meter and time-lapse photographs of water droplets bouncing method. The results show that the as-prepared surfaces have micro/nano dual scale structures mainly consisting of La[CH3(CH2)12COO]3 crystals. The maximum water contact angle (WCA) is about 160.9°, and the corresponding sliding angle is about 5°. This method is time-saving and can be easily extended to other conductive materials, having a great potential for future applications.

Highlights

Surface wettability is one of the most important properties of solid materials [1,2].Superhydrophobic surfaces with a water contact angle (WCA) greater than 150◦ and a sliding angle less than 10◦ have attracted considerable attention due to their unique behavior for both fundamental research and industrial application in the field of self-cleaning [3,4], anti-icing [5,6,7], anti-corrosion [8,9,10], water-oil separation [11], etc
The superhydrophobic phenomenon can be attributed to a rough surface with special micro/nano structures and/or surface chemical composition with low surface free energy
Almost all of the micro particles showed cracks on the surface, some of which are similar to coffee beans; some even had cross cracks that make them look like a four-leaf clover

Summary

Introduction

Superhydrophobic surfaces with a water contact angle (WCA) greater than 150◦ and a sliding angle less than 10◦ have attracted considerable attention due to their unique behavior for both fundamental research and industrial application in the field of self-cleaning [3,4], anti-icing [5,6,7], anti-corrosion [8,9,10], water-oil separation [11], etc. The superhydrophobic phenomenon can be attributed to a rough surface with special micro/nano structures and/or surface chemical composition with low surface free energy. Most of the above mentioned methods involved some drawbacks, such as environmentally unfriendly chemical treatments, high vacuum and ultraclean working conditions, expensive equipment (e.g., photolithographic devices), or multi-step and time-consuming processing procedures, which have limited their wider industrial applications. Inspired by some particular natural creatures, such as lotus leaves [12,13], rose petal [14], rice leaves [15,16], and complex eyes of mosquito [17], a great number of processes were developed to fabricate the artificial superhydrophobic surfaces, including, but are not limited to, chemical etching [18,19,20], electrochemical etching [21,22], solution-immersion [9,23], sol-gel processing [24,25], laser processing [26,27], chemical vapor deposition [28], electrospinning [29], and hybrid processes [30,31,32,33].

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