Preparing superhydrophobic copper surfaces with rose petal or lotus leaf property using a simple etching approach

Abstract

A facile chemical etching process is developed to fabricate superhydrophobic copper surfaces. In the first step, cleaned copper surfaces immersed in ferric chloride (FeCl3) solutions with specific concentrations for different times. Etched surfaces exhibit the maximum contact angle of 140°. They have large sliding angle and water droplets stuck to the surface even if they were turned upside down which is well-known as rose petal effect. After stearic acid modification of etched surfaces, their contact angle slightly increased to above 150° and sliding angle decreased to smaller than 10° in some cases, which is same as lotus plant leaves property against water. Inspecting SEM images of etched surfaces reveals that many micro-nano structures forming blossom like buildings with curved petals of nanoscale thicknesses are formed. The micro-nano structures sizes and shapes affecting surface hydrophobicity are regulated by controlling reaction times and etchant solution concentrations. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis is done on a sample before and after of the etching process where patterns indicate that the same compositions present on the sample.