Fast Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Copper Alloy Fabricated by Commercial Fiber Laser-1062 nm and Stability of Superhydrophobic Surface

Abstract

We present a fast, straightforward fabrication method to produce stable superhydrophobic copper alloy surfaces. The technique consists of irradiating copper with a fiber laser and then coating the surface with ethanol. The laser ablation generates surface morphology on the copper surfaces, such as line and grid patterns. We can modify the wetting properties and surface morphology by changing the step size. We assessed the change of the water contact angle on the raw surface, laser-based textures after natural aging, and laser-based textures post-low annealing. After that, we measured the stability of the water contact angle till 120 days. After low annealing heat treatment, water contact angles on grid pattern surfaces have superhydrophobic surfaces and are more stable till 120 days.