Preparation of superhydrophobic glass surface with high adhesion

Abstract

This paper prepared the superhydrophobic surfaces on the glass substrate by the ablation of grid microstructures using picosecond laser and subsequence chemical modifications by silanization. The novelties in this research are the superhydrophobic surfaces prepared with high adhesion and further exploration of the effect of abrasion on its superhydrophobic and adhesion properties. The surface morphologies were characterized by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to reveal the effect of laser parameters on micro-nano structure. The water contact angles and surface roughness values were measured to illustrate the effect laser parameters on surface wettability. The surface energy was calculated to prove the correlation between lower surface energy and superhydrophobicity. The chemical composition of the surfaces was detected by an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to explore the mechanism of changes in wettability from the reaction of fluorosilane and glass materials perspectives. The surface adhesion experiments were also performed to reveal the relationship between surface adhesion and laser parameters. The results indicated that the micro/nano structure by laser-induced were substantially dependent on the laser energy and significantly affected the adhesion. However, the number of scans slightly affected the surface morphologies and the adhesion. Finally, the abrasion resistance experiments were conducted to observe the relationship between abrasion cycle to contact angle and adhesion.