Stearic acid and fluoroalkylsilane are widely used in chemical modification to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces in corrosion-resistant exploration. However, extensive works have just explored their anticorrosive performance in salt solution. Very rare work has focused on comparing their corrosion-resistant performance in corrosive solution (salt, alkali, and acid) systematically. In this study, two kinds of superhydrophobic surfaces were obtained on laser-processed rough IN304 surface after the stearic acid and FAS modification processes, respectively. The investigation and comparison of anticorrosion performance in salt, alkali, and acid electrolyte were carried out via potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The promotion mechanism or impairing mechanism was further proposed based on the results of surface wettability, surface morphology, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Besides, the long-term anticorrosion performance and the stability of surface wettability were also investigated. It is hoped that these research findings could provide an explicit guidance of suitable anticorrosion methods selection for metals in different kinds of corrosive solution (salt, alkali, and acid), which will further raise the promising prospect of functional surfaces for practical applications in industry.

Extensive studies have been carried out to investigate the stability of superhydrophobic surfaces under acid, alkali, and salt solutions. It is noted that previous literature studies just demonstrated a variety of experimental phenomena. However, very few works have focused on the protection mechanism or failure mechanism of fluorinated superhydrophobic surfaces from the perspective of chemical aspects. Herein, this paper aims to investigate the effects of acid, alkali, and salt solutions on the stability of fluorinated superhydrophobic surfaces, and the anticorrosion/corrosion mechanism will be further proposed. The superhydrophobic coating was obtained on silicon substrates by laser surface texturing followed by fluoroalkyl silane modification. The resultant surfaces presented a water contact angle (WCA) of 157.6 ± 0.4° with a small water sliding angle (WSA) of 1.3 ± 0.3°. The newly fabricated superhydrophobic surfaces were then immersed in different concentrations of corrosive solutions (acid, alkali, and salt solutions). The revolution of surface wettability and surface morphology on treated silicon surfaces was evaluated through WCAs, scanning electron microscopy, and white light confocal microscopy. The results indicate that the hydrogen ions (H+) played a positive role in the retention of superhydrophobicity. However, the hydroxyl (OH–) and chloride ions (Cl–) presented the negative influence. The protection mechanism or corrosion mechanism under different solutions was proposed based on the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results. In addition, the potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements provided strong support in data and were conducted to verify the rationality of the proposed mechanism.