Abstract
A facile environmentally acceptable surface roughening method using chemical etching in HCl/H2O2 followed by grafting with n-octyltrimethoxysilane (AS-8) and 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltrimethoxysilane (FAS-8) was studied to fabricate a (super)hydrophobic aluminium surface. The ground aluminium surface after selected etching times (before and after grafting), was characterised using a contact profilometer, optical tensiometer, scanning electron microscope coupled with an energy-dispersive spectroscope and X-ray photoelectron spectroscope to evaluate surface roughness, wettability, surface morphology and composition. The durability of the grafted surface was tested using thermal and UV resistance tests. The corrosion properties were evaluated using potentiodynamic measurements and standard salts spray testing, ASTM B117-19. Finally, the self-cleaning and anti-icing abilities were assessed. The grafted aluminium surface with octyl- or perfluorooctyl silane reflected the highly hydrophobic (AS-8) and superhydrophobic behaviour (FAS-8). Moreover, the different behaviour of the octyl- or perfluorooctyl chain in the silane molecule on modified surface properties was also noticed because durability tests confirmed greater thermal, UV stability and corrosion resistance of FAS-8 compared to AS-8. The aluminium etched for 2 min and grafted with FAS-8 also demonstrated an excellent self-cleaning and anti-icing performance.
Highlights
Aluminium is one of the most often used metals in the modern engineering industry due to its superior physical and mechanical properties [1,2]
AS-8; on the confirmed that the superhydrophobic surface with a high-water contact angle and a low other hand, a clean surface remained on aluminium treated with
Ahydrophobic aluminium surface has been fabricated by a facile two-step processing consisting of chemical etching in HCl/H2 O2 solution followed by grafting using n-octyltrimethoxysilane (AS-8) or 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltrimethoxysilane (FAS-8)
Summary
Aluminium is one of the most often used metals in the modern engineering industry due to its superior physical and mechanical properties [1,2]. Numerous researchers confirmed that the surface modification could be achieved by surface treatment during immersion ethanol or toluene solutions containing carboxylic acids with a long perfluoroalkyl chain [34,36,49] or silanisation using perfluoroalkyl silanes [31,53]. The latter is chemically bonded on the aluminium surface with strong chemical Al–O–Si bonds, which gives good adhesion to the surface [31,54,55]. The self-cleaning and anti-icing properties were monitored
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