Fabrication of the stainless steel surface with super durable one‐direction superhydrophobicity and two‐direction anisotropic wettability

Abstract

Inspired by the anisotropy of the rice leaf surface, high-speed wire electrical discharge machining (HS-WEDM) technology was used to build submillimetre-scale structures on the 304 stainless steel surfaces, and fluorination treatment was applied on the resulting surfaces. The wettability and microstructure of the resulting surfaces were investigated by a large depth 3D scanner, scanning electron microscopy and by the contact angle measuring instrument. The durability of the fabricated surface was evaluated by wear tests. Results show that the V-shaped groove arrays with a hierarchical structure on the processed surfaces are built by HS-WEDM. After the fluorination treatment, the as-machined surfaces show good one-direction superhydrophobicity and the obvious two-direction (the parallel and perpendicular groove directions) anisotropic wettability. The effect of the size of the V-shaped groove on the two-direction anisotropy is discussed. The wear tests show that the one-direction superhydrophobicity and the two-direction anisotropic sliding properties of the stainless steel surfaces are still exhibited after the tests. Fabricating rough surfaces by HS-WEDM is efficient and does not require complex process operation and large area three-dimensional features. This method can realise industrial production.

Research on HS‐WEDM and chemical etching technology of superamphiphobic surfaces on Al substrates

“…In our work, HS-WEDM (DK7732) was used to fabricate the stainless steel surface with the anisotropic wettability [20]. First, a HS-WEDM was used to fabricate the microstructure on Al substrates.…”

Influence of laser surface texturing on a low‐adhesion and superhydrophobic aluminium alloy surface

“…With the increasing of the bareness time in air, the surface energy was decreased continuously, which made the contact state between the droplet and the sample surface transform into Cassie theoretical model. Considering that microstructures with thin films are known to stabilise Cassie states [18], this would be expected to amplify the hydrophobicity of the rough substrate.…”

Facile Fabrication of a Superhydrophobic Surface with Robust Micro-/Nanoscale Hierarchical Structures on Titanium Substrate

“…The results showed that the groove direction led to nonuniform wettability with anisotropic properties [ 26 , 27 ]. Wan et al also found two-direction anisotropy of the superhydrophobic property on steel surfaces with V-shaped grooves [ 28 ]. Wan et al used high speed wire EDM and chemical etching to fabricate micro/nanometer-scale rough structures on an Al alloy surface [ 29 ].…”