Experimental investigation on hydrophobic/superhydrophobic micro patterns: New manufacture method and performance. (December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huang, Jihui; Xu, Zhutian; Peng, Linfa; Liu, Jiansheng
• Is Part Of: Materials today communications. Volume 33(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Subjects: Oscillation-loaded dynamic micro embossing process -- Micro patterns -- Hydrophobic/superhydrophobic; Materials science -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.104666
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2352-4928

Abstract

Abstract: Hydrophobic/superhydrophobic micro patterns have broad application prospect due to their excellent water repellent ability. In order to manufacture hydrophobic micro patterns on metallic surface, a new flexible and high-efficient method called oscillation-loaded dynamic micro embossing (DME) was developed. In this work, the manufacture process and hydrophobic performance of micro patterns were experimentally investigated. Firstly, the oscillation-loaded DME process parameters designing method was provided to fabricate micro patterns with target dimensions. Then, pure copper workpiece with micro parallel channels and cubes array with different feature width were obtained through DME experiments. The experimental results of the geometrical morphology showed that dimensions of micro patterns were close to the theoretical value, demonstrating the effectiveness of the process parameters designing method. In addition, it was revealed that the roughness of the micro pattern top surface was enhanced significantly by increasing grain size and reducing punch width. Furthermore, the hydrophobic performance of the manufactured parallel channels and cubes array were investigated through water contact angle ( WCA ) test. It was demonstrated that the WCA of pure copper workpiece was improved significantly by the fabricated micro parallel channels and cubes array. Moreover, it was found that the WCA can be improved by reducing the feature width for both the parallel channels and cubes array. Lastly, superhydrophobic micro patterns with WCA up to 161.4° were obtained by utilizing the new oscillation-loaded DME process and plasma surface treatment. Graphical Abstract: ga1