Large-area fabrication and applications of patterned surface with anisotropic superhydrophobicity

Recently, anisotropic superhydrophobic surfaces have aroused much attention due to their promising applications. However, large-area fabrication of low-cost superhydrophobic surfaces with obvious anisotropicity is still a huge challenge. In this work, a home-made melt hot-pressing method was proposed to facilely fabricate aligned micro-patterns on high-density polyethylene surface. Such surface displays anisotropic superhydrophobic characteristic with a static water contact angle of 152 degrees and 145 degrees respectively in parallel and perpendicular direction. Moreover, it has low surface adhesion and decent mechanical stability, showing promising applications for hydraulic triboelectric generator with self-cleaning ability, milk residue reduction and drag reduction. Considering the facile fabrication process and inexpensive thermoplastic polymer used, this study not only provides the possibility of large-area and low-cost preparation of orderly patterned surfaces with anisotropic superhydrophobicity, but also opens a new pathway toward wide application of anisotropic superhydrophobic surface.