Convenient and large-scale fabrication of cost-effective superhydrophobic aluminum alloy surface with excellent reparability

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surfaces are widely used in industry and daily life, yet their practical application is limited by their complicated preparation process, high cost, and poor repairability. We propose a low-cost, facile process for preparing superhydrophobic surfaces to address this limitation. Through a simple three-step spraying process, the rough structure was first constructed on the aluminum alloy, and upon modification by modifier, the superhydrophobic aluminum alloy surface was successfully prepared. The effect of the process parameters on wettability was experimentally studied. The results showed that this method can obtain superhydrophobic surfaces with a contact angle of 156.2°and contact angle hysteresis of 7.4°by simply adjusting the etching time and modifier concentration. In addition, it was found that the prepared surface can keep the superhydrophobic property unchanged at 180 °C, showing good thermal stability. When immersed in acetic acid and sodium hydroxide solution, the prepared surface can maintain its superhydrophobicity for about 2 days, showing good chemical stability. Besides, the surface has excellent repairability and can compensate for the short-life defects caused by poor friction resistance. This superhydrophobic surface with a simple preparation process, low cost, and excellent repairable characteristics also has excellent selfcleaning, antifogging, and antifrosting applications.

Fog Harvesting with Highly Wetting and Nonwetting Vertical Strips

“…There is strong interest to improve the water collection efficiency in fog interception by harnessing the wetting characteristics of surfaces. The exploitation of surface wettability has been driven by significant advancements in fabricating cost-effective superhydrophobic (contact angle >150°) − and superhydrophilic − (contact angle <10°) substrates. These developments are of significant importance for practicable fog harvesting in resource limited venues.…”

A Novel Simple Fabrication Method for Mechanically Robust Superhydrophobic 2024 Aluminum Alloy Surfaces

“…However, it is difficult to obtain a mechanically robust superhydrophobic surface based on aluminum-alloy substrates. Therefore, research about enhancing mechanical durability of superhydrophobic aluminum alloy surfaces attracts great attention [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…Coatings 2022, 12, 1717 2 of 14 combination of white-light interferometry and chemical etching [11], a combination of laser texture and boiling-water treatment [41], a combination of boiling-water treatment and chemical etching [42] and chemical etching by itself [12][13][14][15], have been developed to construct rough surfaces on aluminum-alloy substrates. Among these approaches, chemical etching has been highlighted on account of its low cost and high efficiency.…”

Wettability, Self-Cleaning Property, and Mechanical Durability of A390 Aluminum Alloy with the Major Effect of Si Phases

“…The complexity of the internal crystal structure and chemical composition leads to the inhomogeneity of the etching process, thus revealing a rough micro-/nanostructure on the metal surface. Cui et al etched a stepped dense textured layer on 5052 aluminum alloy by adjusting the etching time and the concentration of HCl etchant, thus successfully fabricating a superhydrophobic surface with a contact angle of 156.2° and a contact angle hysteresis (CAH) of 7.4° . Barthwal and Lim utilized an HCl solution to etch a rectangular-shaped plateau structure on the surface of 6061 aluminum alloy, which was attributed to a large number of dislocation defects within the crystalline metal .…”

“…Cui et al etched a stepped dense textured layer on 5052 aluminum alloy by adjusting the etching time and the concentration of HCl etchant, thus successfully fabricating a superhydrophobic surface with a contact angle of 156.2°and a contact angle hysteresis (CAH) of 7.4°. 16 Barthwal and Lim utilized an HCl solution to etch a rectangular-shaped plateau structure on the surface of 6061 aluminum alloy, which was attributed to a large number of dislocation defects within the crystalline metal. 17 Guo et al placed AA7055 aluminum alloy into MgCl 2 solution and reacted hydrothermally at 90 °C to successfully etch a micron petal-shaped structure with the grain boundary as the boundary on its surface.…”