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An easy-to-implement method for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces inspired by taro leaf

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Abstract

An easy-to-implement method by which to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces inspired taro leaf was successfully applied on 316L stainless steel via combining nanosecond laser (NL) processing and spin-coating techniques. The laser-textured surface composed of microscale frameworks and central bumps was fabricated by NL processing based on properly designed biomimetic patterns, and a layer of nanoscale carbon black/polydimethylsiloxane (CB/PDMS) particles was covered on it by spin-coating. The effect of pattern parameters (i.e., the inscribed circle radius of framework and the radius of central bump) on wettability of biomimetic surface was investigated. All as-prepared biomimetic surfaces with micro-nano hierarchical structures showed excellent superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle of ∼155° and contact angle hysteresis of ∼2°. By comparing the untreated surface, the wetting behavior and evaporation mode of the biomimetic surface occurred an obvious transformation. Meanwhile, experiments indicated that the biomimetic surface not only had liquid-repelling and self-cleaning functions, but also maintained remarkable mechanical robustness and superhydrophobic durability. The method is efficient for fabricating biomimetic superhydrophobic surfaces applied to liquid-repelling, evaporation-transforming and self-cleaning fields.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China

    KaiKai Li, Jiang Lei, YingXi Xie, LongSheng Lu, PeiYang Zhou, ZhenPing Wan & Yong Tang

  2. Division of Interdisciplinary and Comprehensive Research, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China

    ShaoHui Zhang

  3. GBA Research Innovation Institute for Nanotechnology, Guangzhou, 510700, China

    ShaoHui Zhang

  4. College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    RongXuan Liang

Authors
  1. KaiKai Li
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  2. Jiang Lei
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Correspondence to LongSheng Lu.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFE0126300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51775197), and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2019A1515011530).

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An easy-to-implement method for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces inspired by taro leaf

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Li, K., Lei, J., Xie, Y. et al. An easy-to-implement method for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces inspired by taro leaf. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 64, 2676–2687 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1855-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1855-2

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