Superhydrophobicity of Bionic Alumina Surfaces Fabricated by Hard Anodizing

Bionic alumina samples were fabricated on convex dome type aluminum alloy substrate using hard anodizing technique. The convex domes on the bionic sample were fabricated by compression molding under a compressive stress of 92.5 MPa. The water contact angles of the as-anodized bionic samples were measured using a contact angle meter (JC2000A) with the 3 mu L water drop at room temperature. The measurement of the wetting property showed that the water contact angle of the unmodified as-anodized bionic alumina samples increases from 90 degrees to 137 degrees with the anodizing time. The increase in water contract angle with anodizing time arises from the gradual formation of hierarchical structure or composite structure. The structure is composed of the micro-scaled alumina columns and pores. The height of columns and the depth of pores depend on the anodizing time. The water contact angle increases significantly from 96 degrees to 152 degrees when the samples were modified with self-assembled monolayer of octadecanethiol (ODT), showing a change in the wettability from hydrophobicity to super-hydrophobicity. This improvement in the wetting property is attributed to the decrease in the surface energy caused by the chemical modification.