Abstract
Abstract Superhydrophobic aluminum surfaces have been prepared by means of electrodeposition of copper on aluminum surfaces, followed by electrochemical modification using stearic acid organic molecules. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that the electrodeposited copper films follow “island growth mode” in the form of microdots and their number densities increase with the rise of the negative deposition potentials. At an electrodeposition potential of −0.2 V the number density of the copper microdots are found to be 4.5×104 cm−2 that are increased to 2.9×105 cm−2 at a potential of −0.8 V. Systematically, the distances between the microdots are found to be reduced from 26.6 μm to 11.03 μm with the increase of negative electrochemical potential from −0.2V to −0.8V. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses have confirmed the formation of copper stearate on the stearic acid modified copper films. The roughness of the stearic acid modified electrodeposited copper films is found to increase with the increase in the density of the copper microdots. A critical copper deposition potential of −0.6V in conjunction with the stearic acid modification provides a surface roughness of 6.2 μm with a water contact angle of 157°, resulting in superhydrophobic properties on the aluminum substrates.
Highlights
Wettability of a solid surface is one of the most important properties of materials, which depends on both the geometry and chemical composition of the surface [1]
The electrodeposited copper films are composed of microdots of copper which is identified by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) as well as by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis
Nanostructured superhydrophobic aluminum surfaces were prepared by two step processes: in the first step copper films were electrodeposited on aluminum surfaces and in the second step the copper films were electrochemically modified in ethanolic stearic acid solution
Summary
Wettability of a solid surface is one of the most important properties of materials, which depends on both the geometry and chemical composition of the surface [1]. In one of the one-step methods, we have reported the engineering of superhydrophobic copper surfaces by electrochemical modification of copper electrode in an ethanolic stearic acid solution [18]. In this study, the aluminum surfaces were initially electrodeposited with copper films and further electrochemically modified by ethanolic stearic acid solution to obtain superhydrophobic properties on aluminum surfaces.
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