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Transparency and superhydrophobicity of cone-shaped micropillar array textured polydimethylsiloxane

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Abstract

Transparent superhydrophobic surfaces have great potential for application to self-cleaning transparent windows. We suggest a fabrication method that combines laser beam machining and polymer casting. A UV nanosecond pulsed laser was used to machine arrays of holes into molds composed of 6061 aluminum alloy. Then, polydimethylsiloxane was cast into the laser-machined molds. To study the effects of the array geometry on superhydrophobicity and transparency, a series of micropillar arrays with different step sizes were fabricated. As a result, the critical step size at which the surfaces changed from hydrophobic to superhydrophobic was found to be approximately 80 μm. Cone-shaped micropillar arrays with 80 μm step size showed 175° maximum water droplet contact angle and were highly transparent throughout the 300–1000 nm spectral region. Sliding angle was observed to confirm the surfaces’ self-cleaning ability. This work opens up the possibility of mass production of superhydrophobic, transparent, self-cleaning surfaces.

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Abbreviations

θ c :

contact angle of a water droplet on a rough surface in the partial wetting state

ϕ 1 :

area fraction of water-solid surfaces

ϕ 2 :

area fraction of water-air surfaces

θ 1e :

equilibrium contact angle of solid-water surfaces

θ 2e :

equilibrium contact angle of water-air surfaces (180°)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ulsan, 93, Daehak-ro, Nam-gu, Ulsan, 680-749, South Korea

    Chi-Vinh Ngo, Hyun-Seok Oh & Doo-Man Chun

  2. Doloonboldog LLC, 21th subdistrict, SonginoKhairkhan district, Ulaanbaatar, 18080, Mongolia

    Gaasuren Davaasuren

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  1. Chi-Vinh Ngo
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  2. Gaasuren Davaasuren
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Correspondence to Doo-Man Chun.

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Ngo, CV., Davaasuren, G., Oh, HS. et al. Transparency and superhydrophobicity of cone-shaped micropillar array textured polydimethylsiloxane. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 16, 1347–1353 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-015-0177-z

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