Fabrication of Super Hydrophobic Surfaces by fs Laser Pulses

Abstract

Groenendijk studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Twente and graduated in the field of active vibration isolation. In his PhD project he worked on femtosecond pulsed materials processing and especially the fabrication of super hydrophobic surfaces by such lasers. Together with two partners he started a spin-off company called Lightmotif that will further develop this technique. The company also offers applications research for a broader range of ultrashort pulsed laser processes.• THE AUTHORThe chair of Applied Laser Technology of the University of Twente, The Netherlands, is performing research into applications of ultrashort pulsed lasers for micromachining. In a recent project, PhD student Max Groenendijk developed a method for the production of super water repellant surfaces by injection molding. The core of this technique is the structuring of mold surfaces by micro and nanometer sized textures, using a femtosecond pulsed laser.

Injection moulding of optical functional micro structures using laser structured, PVD-coated mould inserts

“…In order to enable the variothermal temperature control of the cavity, an injection mould with an integrated laser heating unit is used [8]. The mould has two cavities and is equipped with interchangeable mould inserts.…”

Precision moulding of biomimetic disposable chips for droplet-based applications

“…In order to replicate the lotus structure (Gornik 2004;Kim et al 2013;Oh et al 2011;Tuvshindorj et al 2014), the surfaces of the moulds were equipped with a microtopography (Fig. 1) employing femtosecond pulsed laser ablation as described by Groenendijk (Groenendijk 2008).…”

Nanosecond laser texturing of aluminium for control of wettability

“…Superhydrophobic surfaces can be self-cleaning as well as water repellent and efficient light collecting surfaces 11 . Such surfaces have generally been achieved by exposure to ultrashort laser processing [11][12][13][14] . The generation of hydrophobicity is generally ascribed to the presence of sub-micron features in the topography of the surface, often related to the generation of laser induced periodic structures or "plasmon structuring".…”