Realization of Superhydrophobic Surfaces Based on Three-Dimensional Printing Technology

Abstract

A superhydrophobic surface was successfully realized using fused deposition modeling-type three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. The low printing resolution (400 μm) and various printing angles from 0° to 90° were employed to print the mold for casting of polymer surfaces. The polymer surface cast from the mold exhibited waveform microstructures that had a tilting angle almost identical to the printing angle. The maximum average water contact angle (WCA) of fabricated polymer surfaces was 160°, which is much higher than that of flat (bare) polymer surfaces (up to 52.3% increase in the WCA). In particular, water droplets immediately rolled off along 8°-tilted surfaces, cast from the mold printed with printing angle of 70°. This demonstrated the superhydrophobic property. The result of this study shows the feasibility of a facile, rapid, inexpensive, and effective microfabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces using the current 3D printing technology.