Study Of Superhydrophobic Surface And Its Mechanical Durability

Over recent years, the researches on superhydrophobic surfaces have drawn greatattentions among industry and scientific community. These substrate surfaces havemany good properties, such as superhydrophobic, self-cleaning and anti-corrosion.People have finished a great deal of researches to study superhydrophobic surfaces.However, it is necessary to considerate its superhydrophobic mechanical durability forits widely applications. Thus, researchers tried their best to design themicro-nanostructure, which have low surface energy, to improve superhydrophobicmechanical durability. Researches showed that:(1) A layer of copper coating which is porous and ferthery was fabricated onaluminum substrate. After modified by STA (stearic acid), superhydrophobic surfacescan be obtained with water contact angle of146°, rolling angle of1°within5secondsimmersion in0.5M solution concentrations. Also, it showed lower adhesion for somekinds of oils.(2) Aluminum substrate was etched by using copper chloride solution. Afterfinishing etched, the etched surfaces were washed to expose its reaction interface. Thewater contact angle can be reached147°after modified by STA. When oils, such asglycerol, diethylene glycol and formamide were deposited on the surfaces, theircontact angle can be reached138°,144°,141°, respectively. The interface betweenreaction products and Al substrate can improve mechanical strength of thesuperhydrophobic surface. UMT wear test of steel-ball/superhydrophobic-surfaceshowed that, the wear life of the superhydrophobic was more than1800seconds (under0.5N load).(3) Aluminum superhydrophobic surfaces were fabricated by modifing a layer ofmicro-nanostructure zinc oxide film, which have low surface energy. After thermalinsulation for20hours, water contact angle can reached149°; UMT wear testpresented that the wear life was more than1800seconds (under0.5N load). Test ofmetallographic polishing cloth on aluminum superhydrophobic surfaces showed that the substrate can maintain high water contact angles (128°) under2000cycles.