Morphological modification of the surface of polymers by the replication of the structure of anodic aluminum oxide

Anodic aluminum oxide films have been used as stamps to modify polymer materials in order to create superhydrophobic surfaces. Using polyethylene terephthalate, it has been shown that a high replication degree leads to a strong increase in the water wetting contact angle (up to 174A degrees). However, the inverse situation is observed for the case of low replication degrees: hydrophilization of the surface occurs, which can be explained by a change of the Cassie-Baxter wetting mechanism to the Wenzel mechanism.