Abstract
Aluminum alloys are widely used, but they are prone to contamination or damage under harsh working environments. In this paper, a self-cleaning superhydrophobic aluminum alloy surface with good corrosion resistance was successfully fabricated via the combination of sand peening and electrochemical oxidation, and it was subsequently covered with a fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) film. The surface morphology, surface wettability, and corrosion resistance were investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an optical contact angle measurement, and an electrochemical workstation. The results show that binary rough structures and an FAS film with a low surface energy on the Al alloy surfaces confer good superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 167.5 ± 1.1° and a sliding angle of 2.5 ± 0.7°. Meanwhile, the potentiodynamic polarization curve shows that the corrosion potential has a positively shifted trend, and the corrosion current density decreases by three orders of magnitude compared with that of the original aluminum alloy sample. In addition, the chemical stability of the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface was evaluated by dripping test using solutions with different pH values for different immersion time. It indicates that the superhydrophobic surface could provide long-term corrosion protection for aluminum alloys. Consequently, the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface has excellent contamination resistance and self-cleaning efficacy, which are important for practical applications.
Highlights
Aluminum and its alloys have many advantages, such as high specific strength, good formability, low density, high specific stiffness, excellent thermal conductivity, non-magnetic properties, and so on [1,2,3,4]
It can be found that the contact angle (CA) increased from 134.9◦ ± 1.5◦ to 145.7◦ ± 1.0◦ with the increase in impacting pressure from 0.6 to 0.7 MPa, and decreased to 142.1◦ ± 1.3◦ when the impacting pressure reached 0.75 MPa
The effect of nozzle diameter on CA was investigated at 0.7 MPa of impacting pressure with 60 mesh of alumina particles and 5 mm of nozzle diameter for 90 s
Summary
Aluminum and its alloys have many advantages, such as high specific strength, good formability, low density, high specific stiffness, excellent thermal conductivity, non-magnetic properties, and so on [1,2,3,4] They are widely used in the manufacturing fields of medical devices, as well as the aerospace and automobile industries, among others. Zhang et al introduced the fundamental theories behind superhydrophobicity followed by a comprehensive review of the recent progresses of this rapidly growing field over the past five years [8]. They found that SHS can minimize the interaction between metal substrates and aqueous corrosive species, thereby producing superior anticorrosive performance. They thought that an SHS with highly controllable adhesion is feasible in different environments
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