Femtosecond pulsed laser textured titanium surfaces with stable superhydrophilicity and superhydrophobicity

Abstract

A facile and highly-efficient laser scanning process coupled with a simple silanization modification was used to prepare textured titanium (Ti) surfaces with stable superhydrophilicity and superhydrophobicity. Femtosecond pulsed laser scanning along two mutually perpendicular directions led to the formation of binary structures featuring micrometer-scale spikes covered with nanometer-scale ripples. The period of the spikes significantly increased and the period of the ripples irregularly changed in the narrow range of 550–600nm with the increase of laser fluence. The obtained laser-textured Ti surfaces were hydrophilic or even superhydrophilic, and the superhydrophilic laser-textured Ti surface using a laser fluence of 1.5J/cm2 was observed to retain its wetting property after 30days of storage in ambient atmosphere. After silanization, all the laser-textured Ti surfaces exhibited high hydrophobicity or superhydrophobicity, and the superhydrophobic laser-textured Ti surfaces using laser fluences of 1.5 and 1.8J/cm2 remained stable when stored in air for over 30days. The results imply the potential applications of these surfaces in a variety of fields.