Abstract
This work reports the laser surface modification of 304S15 stainless steel to develop superhydrophobic properties and the subsequent application for homogeneous spot deposition. Superhydrophobic surfaces, with steady contact angle of ∼154° and contact angle hysteresis of ∼4°, are fabricated by direct laser texturing. In comparison with common pico-/femto-second lasers employed for this patterning, the nanosecond fiber laser used in this work is more cost-effective, compact and allows higher processing rates. The effect of laser power and scan line separation on surface wettability of textured surfaces are investigated and optimized fabrication parameters are given. Fluid flows and transportations of polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles suspension droplets on the processed surfaces and unprocessed wetting substrates are investigated. After evaporation is complete, the coffee-stain effect is observed on the untextured substrates but not on the superhydrophobic surfaces. Uniform deposition of PS particles on the laser textured surfaces is achieved and the deposited material is confined to smaller area.
Highlights
Superhydrophobic surfaces, for which the water contact angle is higher than 150◦, have attracted increasing research interest due to the many potential applications ranging from biological to industrial processes and even in daily life [1,2,3]
We focused on a = 50 m (Fig. 1e) as it is an optimized value which will be discussed later
It has been demonstrated that superhydrophobic surfaces on a common stainless steel can be fabricated by using a cost-effective and compact nanosecond laser system
Summary
Superhydrophobic surfaces, for which the water contact angle is higher than 150◦, have attracted increasing research interest due to the many potential applications ranging from biological to industrial processes and even in daily life [1,2,3]. A certain surface roughness is required to achieve these low wettability substrates [4,5] and various techniques for attaining them have been investigated, such as lithography, etching, deposition and laser processing [6]. Among these alternatives, laser texturing is a promising method due to the excellent control of surface roughness from nano- to micro-scale, single-step processing under ambient conditions and the ability to work with a large range of materials [7,8,9,10]. There is high demand to reduce the costs by replacing the currently used, expensive, ultrafast lasers to more compact and cost-effective systems such as nanosecond fiber lasers [23]
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