Petal shaped nanostructures planted on array micro-patterns for superhydrophobicity and anti-icing applications

The aim of this paper is to report a facile strategy of planting a layer of petal shaped nanostructures on the surface of array micro-patterns, and producing the excellent superhydrophobicity and anti-icing property. In this work, the superhydrophobic surfaces were prepared by modifying petal shaped nanostructures (constructed by chemical etching in alkaline solution) planted on array micro-patterns (constructed by lithography process with the electrochemical etching under the neutral solution condition) on aluminum substrate with fluoroalkylsilane (FAS-17). Meanwhile, we further studied the effects of chemical etching process parameters on morphology and superhydrophobicity, and on this basis explored the anti-icing potential under the condition of icing wind tunnel. The results indicated that the process parameters including NaOH concentration of 0.05 M, etching time of 5 min, and the subsequent boiling time of 40 min were of benefit to producing the ideal nanostructure morphology and geometric dimension, and the resultant surface displayed an excellent superhydrophobicity with the apparent contact angle of 165 and the sliding angle being almost equal to zero (cannot be measured). Furthermore, the as-superhydrophobic surface generated a tremendous anti-icing potential, greatly preventing the icing accumulation at - 10 degrees C under the condition of icing wind tunnel, and exhibiting a lower ice adhesion strength comparing with a market mature production of superhydrophobic coating. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.