Stable Superhydrophobic Aluminum Surfaces Based on Laser-Fabricated Hierarchical Textures

Parametric investigation of ultrashort pulsed laser surface texturing on aluminium alloy 7075 for hydrophobicity enhancement

Hydrophobicity plays a pivotal role in mitigating surface fouling, corrosion, and icing in critical marine and aerospace environments. By employing ultrafast laser texturing, the characteristic properties of a material's surface can be modified. This work investigates the potential of an advanced ultrafast laser texturing manufacturing process to enhance the hydrophobicity of aluminium alloy 7075. The surface properties were characterized using goniometry, 3D profilometry, SEM, and XPS analysis. The findings from this study show that the laser process parameters play a crucial role in the manufacturing of the required surface structures. Numerical optimization with response surface optimization was conducted to maximize the contact angle on these surfaces. The maximum water contact angle achieved was 142º, with an average height roughness (Sa) of 0.87 ± 0.075 µm, maximum height roughness (Sz) of 19.4 ± 2.12 µm, and texture aspect ratio of 0.042. This sample was manufactured with the process parameters of 3W laser power, 0.08 mm hatch distance, and a 3 mm/s scan speed. This study highlights the importance of laser process parameters in the manufacturing of the required surface structures and presents a parametric modeling approach that can be used to optimize the laser process parameters to obtain a specific surface morphology and hydrophobicity.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00170-024-12971-8.

Superhydrophobic Candle Soot Coating Directly Deposited on Aluminum Substrate with Enhanced Robustness

In this study, superhydrophobic surfaces were developed by using a simple and environmentally friendly technique. The nano-network of candle soot (CS) as the byproduct of incomplete combustion of paraffin candle was directly coated onto both smooth and micro-rough aluminum (Al) substrates for various time periods of deposition. The simple technique of mechanical sanding was used to impart micro-rough structures onto Al substrates using different sandpaper grit sizes. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques were used to characterize the morphology and chemistry of the prepared surfaces. Wetting analysis of the prepared surfaces was performed by measuring both water droplet contact angle (CA) and sliding angle (SA). The prepared coatings showed superhydrophobic properties with high CAs and low SAs for CS surfaces coated on roughened Al substrates. Moreover, the robustness of the prepared surfaces was tested by continuous impingement of water droplets onto their surfaces from various heights. Post-testing wetting analysis showed that the micro-nano surfaces of candle soot coated on micro roughened Al substrates demonstrated improved robustness. These surfaces could be useful for self-cleaning, anti-corrosion and anti-icing applications.

Simultaneous Micro-Structuring and Surface Smoothing of Additive Manufactured Parts Using DLIP Technique and Its Influence on the Wetting Behaviour

It is well known that the surface topography of a part can affect its function as well as its mechanical performance. In this context, we report on the surface modification of additive manufactured components made of Titanium 64 and Scalmalloy^®, using Direct Laser Interference Patterning technique. In our experiments, a nanosecond-pulsed near-infrared laser source with a pulse duration of 10 ns was used. By varying the process parameters, periodic structures with different depths and associated roughness values are produced. Additionally, the influence of the resultant morphological characteristics on the wettability behaviour of the fabricated textures is investigated by means of contact angle measurements. The results demonstrated a reduction of the surface roughness of the additive manufactured parts (in the order of some tens of micrometres) and simultaneously the production of well-defined micro-patterns (in the micrometre range), which allow the wettability of the surfaces from 26° and 16° up to 93° and 131° to be tuned for Titanium 6Al 4V and Al-Mg-Sc (Scalmalloy^®), respectively.