Abstract
Alloys, specifically steel, are considered as the workhorse of our society and are inimitable engineering materials in the field of infrastructure, industry and possesses significant applications in our daily life. However, creating a robust synthetic metallic surface that repels various liquids has remained extremely challenging. The wettability of a solid surface is known to be governed by its geometric nano-/micro structure and the chemical composition. Here, we are demonstrating a facile and economical way to generate copper oxide micro-nano structures with spherical (0D), needle (1D) and hierarchical cauliflower (3D) morphologies on galvanized steel substrates using a simple chemical bath deposition method. These nano/micro textured steel surfaces, on subsequent coating of a low surface energy material display excellent superhydrophobic, superoleophobic and slippery behavior. Polydimethylsiloxane coated textured surfaces illustrate superhydrophobicity with water contact angle about 160°(2) and critical sliding angle ~2°. When functionalized with low-surface energy perfluoroalkylsilane, these surfaces display high repellency for low surface tension oils as well as hydrocarbons. Among them, the hierarchical cauliflower morphology exhibits re-entrant structure thereby showing the best superoleophobicity with contact angle 149° for dodecane. Once infused with a lubricant like silicone oil, they show excellent slippery behavior with low contact angle hysteresis (~ 2°) for water drops.
Highlights
Γ denotes the interfacial surface tension, and S, L, and V stands for solid, liquid and vapor phase, respectively
The solution assisted synthesis by chemical bath deposition (CBD) of the precursor may be the most facile and effective approach to develop nano-crystals at relatively low temperatures, which is exempted from post calcination
We have demonstrated a novel and convenient method to synthesize CuO nano-/micro structures with spherical (0D), needle (1D) and hierarchical (3D) cauliflower morphologies on steel substrate using chemical bath deposition (CBD)
Summary
Slippery surfaces based on PDMS coated copper oxide textured steel surfaces infused with Silicone oil were prepared by immersing the steel samples in silicone oil for 2 min and pulled out with a speed of 200 mm/min. Along with the nano-patterned substrates, a control sample (flat CuO surface with thin PDMS layer) was coated with silicone oil which resulted in oil film thickness of 4.3 (±0.1) μm calculated by weight difference method. Based on these results, we expect the lubricating film thickness on the nano-patterned substrates in the range 5–6 μm
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