Biofouling and Corrosion Protection of Aluminum Alloys Through Ultrafast Laser Surface Texturing for Marine Applications

Abstract

Surface biofouling, corrosion, and wettability are important parameters to understand and characterize aluminum alloys to prevent the failure in marine environments. Antifouling technologies predominantly encompass chemical and biocidal approaches with negative environmental consequences. Therefore, this study focuses on a new method of producing non‐toxic and effective antifouling and corrosion‐resistant surfaces. In this study, ultrafast laser texturing is used to modify the surface of an aluminum alloy using a femtosecond laser system. Five different unique texture patterns are designed and fabricated using 3 W laser power, 100 kHz pulse repetition rate, and 4 mm s−1 scanning speed in order to make the aluminum surface antifouling and corrosion resistant. The non‐textured sample has a contact angle of 85° while the textured samples have contact angles of up to 157°. The contact angle increased with time up to 90 days of aging. Biofouling assessment is conducted using marine algae Nitzschia ovalis as a marine fouling test organism. A reduction of biofilm coverage of 79% is recorded from the laser‐produced star pattern texture. This study demonstrates that laser‐textured surfaces have the potential to mitigate the formation of biofilms on the surfaces while also providing a mechanism to control the relative level of corrosion.