Biomimetic Superhydrophobic Engineering Metal Surface with Hierarchical Structure and Tunable Adhesion: Design of Microscale Pattern

Abstract

Lotus leaves and rose petals are both typical natural superhydrophobic surfaces, with low and high adhesion, respectively. This fact inspires us to prepare superhydrophobic surfaces with different levels of adhesion on iron by mimicking their hierarchical structures through three simple steps: abrasion, calcination, and modification. A uniform and stable superhydrophobic iron surface with excellent adaptability and wearability can be obtained, and its adhesion is tunable. The results confirmed that superhydrophobicity and adhesion are both dependent on the synergy of the microscale and nanoscale patterns of the hierarchical structure generated by the designed abrasion and thermal treating. The adhesion level can be controlled by simply adjusting the abrasion program to obtain the desired microscale pattern with a proper ratio of height-to-width of the microstructure. This easy, inexpensive, and clean three-step method is widely applicable for different engineering metals and alloys and suitable for large-scale production.

Micro‐/Nanostructured Interface for Liquid Manipulation and Its Applications

“…So these creatures had been major sources from which researchers got inspiration for science and technology. Starting from the bioinspired interfaces that simply mimicked the concept of living creatures to newly developing materials with more delicate microscale and nanoscale structures, and reasonably, with high‐performance liquid manipulation capabilities, micro‐/nanostructured interfaces had been reported and found their applications in various areas, including research, daily life, medication, industry and environment …”

Analysis of Wetting Behavior and Solidification Process of Molten Urea on a Superhydrophobic Surface and Its Application in Large Granular Urea Production

“…It is important to analyze the occurrence mechanism of the super-repellency status of urea melt on PSSSS. As known, the low intermolecular force and high roughness are the key factors in generating superhydrophobicity. − Therefore, the intermolecular force between the urea and PTFE was calculated to identify the possible reason for this superurea-melt-repellency effect.…”

Bioinspired cellulose-based membranes in oily wastewater treatment

“…As the liquid droplet is smaller than the microscale groves, the drop will receive interfacial surface energy and roughness corresponding to the surface. Therefore, several attempts have been introduced to create nano to microscale roughness (Nosonovsky and Bhushan, 2007;Cho and Choi, 2008;Jeong et al, 2009;Cha et al, 2010;Li et al, 2013;Chen et al, 2015;Jiang et al, 2017;Sun et al, 2019).…”