Superhydrophobic surfaces on brass with controllable water adhesion

Superhydrophobic surfaces have aroused much attention because of their potential engineering applications. In this paper, a facile and quick method is reported to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces with controllable water adhesion on brass. After alternating current (AC) etching in phosphoric acid solution for 0.5 min to 5 min, copper aggregates on the brass substrate with different micro-structures. After the modification with stearic acid, superhydrophobic surfaces are obtained. And the wettability of superhydrophobic surfaces can be controlled via varying the etching time. This facile and inexpensive technique provides a novel strategy to construct superhydrophobic surfaces with controllable wetting behaviors. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.