A hybrid laser ablation and chemical etching process for manufacturing nature-inspired anisotropic superhydrophobic structures

Yukui Cai, Xichun Luo, Zongwei Xu, King Hang Aaron Lau, Fei Ding, Yi Qin

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
69 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The surface with anisotropic superhydrophobicity has great potential applications for drag reduction, drug delivery and microfluidic devices. Observation from natural biological surfaces proved that directional microstructures are indispensable to realize anisotropic superhydrophobicity. However, current lithography-based manufacturing approaches have limited capabilities to scale-up for real world industrial applications. This paper proposes a hybrid laser ablation and chemical etching process for manufacturing ratchet-like microstructures on 316L stainless steel for the first time. It harvests the advantages of both processes. The laser ablation will form specified recast layer and covered by oxide layer on the specimen, and these two layers can be easily removed in the chemical etching process hence to obtain the periodic ratchet-like microstructures. According to the experimental results, the direction of microstructures is same as with the laser beam feed direction. The width and depth of microstructures also can be well-controlled by laser power and pitch. The specimens with pith of 25 μm have contact angle larger than 150°. And the droplet easily rolls off along the laser beam feed direction but is pinned tightly in the opposite direction.
Original languageEnglish
Pages90-93
Number of pages4
Publication statusPublished - 3 Jun 2019
EventEUSPEN's 19th International Conference & Exhibition - Bilbao, Spain
Duration: 3 Jun 20197 Jun 2019
Conference number: 19th

Conference

ConferenceEUSPEN's 19th International Conference & Exhibition
Country/TerritorySpain
CityBilbao
Period3/06/197/06/19

Keywords

  • laser ablation
  • chemical etching
  • superhydrophobic surface

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