Fabrication of Unmodified Bionic Copper Surfaces with Highly Stable Hydrophobicity and Anti‐Icing Properties via a Transfer with Zr‐Based Metallic Glasses

Abstract

AbstractBioinspired surfaces with micro/nanostructures have attracted tremendous scientific interests in the aspect of anti‐icing due to their extreme stability and hydrophobicity. Nevertheless, poor durability and stability have greatly hindered their applications. Here, the copper surfaces with four kinds of wood morphologies are obtained via Zr‐based metallic glasses (MGs) as the intermediate template, i.e., thermoplasticity of MGs in the supercooled liquid region (SCLR) matters. These as‐prepared copper surfaces show excellent water repellency and remarkably can delay the freezing process. Compared with a smooth copper surface with a water contact angle (WCA) of 39.5 ± 2.0°, these as‐prepared copper surfaces exhibit WCAs of 120 ± 2.2, 132 ± 1.8, 127 ± 1.7, and 123 ± 1.5°, respectively, and their freezing temperatures decrease significantly, from 0 to −5.6, −9.8, −7.2, and −6.8 °C, respectively. Notably, the hydrophobic copper surfaces maintain good stability without losing hydrophobicity while undergoing heat treatments at 200 or 400 °C for 5 h, showing an extreme stability. In contrast, many hydrophobic surfaces prepared by chemical treatments become weak at such high temperatures. Thus, the MGs‐transferred wooden structures provide a time‐saving and low‐cost approach for the preparation of the stable and hydrophobic copper surfaces with anti‐icing, self‐cleaning, and corrosion resistance.