Fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces with high adhesive forces towards water on steel substrates

The present Letter reports a simple and effective two-steps immersion method to fabricate superhydrphobic surfaces with high adhesive forces towards water on steel substrates. The steel plates were firstly immersed in the aqueous CuSO4 solution for 20 s, and then immersed in the stearic acid ethanol solution for 24 h. The sample surfaces were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectrophotometry, X-ray diffraction and optical contact angle measurements. The results show that, after two-steps immersion processes, the cupric stearate microspheres with binary micro/nanometre-scale rough structures are formed on the steel surfaces. The as-prepared steel surfaces exhibit a good high adhesive superhydrophobicity with a 166.3 degrees water contact angle and no rolling angle. The high adhesive superhydrophobic surfaces on steel substrates have a good potential application in no loss liquid transportation.