Indexed by:期刊论文

Date of Publication:2012-09-01

Journal:APPLIED PHYSICS A-MATERIALS SCIENCE & PROCESSING

Included Journals:SCIE、EI、Scopus

Volume:108

Issue:3

Page Number:559-568

ISSN No.:0947-8396

Abstract:Super-hydrophobic aluminum (Al) surfaces were successfully fabricated via electrochemical machining in neutral NaClO3 electrolyte and subsequent fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) modification. The effects of the processing time, processing current density, and electrolyte concentration on the wettability, morphology, and roughness were studied. The surface morphology, chemical composition, and wettability of the Al surfaces were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), white-light interferometry, roughness measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), and optical contact angle measurements. The results show that hierarchical rough structures and low surface energy films were present on the Al surfaces after electrochemical machining and FAS modification. The combination of the rough structures and the low surface energy materials plays a crucial role in achieving super-hydrophobicity. Compared with the anodic oxidation and chemical etching method, the method proposed in our work does not require strong acid or alkali, and causes less harm to the environment and operators but with high processing efficiency. The rough structures required by the super-hydrophobic surfaces were obtained at 30-s processing time and the best super-hydrophobicity with 164.6(a similar to) water contact angle and 2(a similar to) tilting angle was obtained at 360 s. The resulting super-hydrophobic Al surfaces have a long-time stability in air and an excellent resistance to corrosive liquids.