Facile and low-cost method to fabricate a superhydrophobic aluminum alloy surface: towards optimum preparation conditions

Aluminum and the aluminum alloys are important and useful materials in industry with potential for enhanced applications via creating novel properties such assuperhydrophobicity and self-cleaning features. In this study, an improved facile and low-cost surface treatment approach was developed to create a superhydrophobicaluminum surface. Overall, the modified aluminum substrates exhibited a satisfactory superhydrophobicity, with a static water contact angle of about 1461 and a contact angle hysteresis of approximately 11. The effects of two key parameters including theetching time and coating temperature were investigated using simple and handy measurement techniques. The results show that a 4 min immersion time for acidtreatment of the surface and a temperature of 46 °C for the coating step would be considered optimal with respect to the contact angle and self-cleaning property. Further increasing the reaction temperature, however, leads to the cleavage of thehydrogen bonds, thus increasing the surface energy and reducing the water contact angle

Keywords:

Superhydrophobic surface , Aluminum , Etching , Stearic acid , Hydrogen bonding