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Directional liquid spreading on laser textured aluminum surface

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Abstract

The wettability property of a material surface is highly dependent on the topography of the surface micro/nanostructure. Femtosecond (fs) laser can be used to fabricate various kinds of surface micro/nanostructures. We present parallel microgroove arrays with unique cross-sectional profiles on the surface of an aluminum foil induced by varying the laser fluence and the scanning spacing. The laser textured aluminum surface shows directional spreading of water and inherently hydrophilic aluminum surface becomes superhydrophilic. A water droplet spreads highly anisotropically on the processed area and flows preferentially along the microgrooves. The maximum average spreading velocity of water droplet along the laser textured microgrooves is ~ 200 mm/s, while it is much slower in the direction perpendicular to the microgrooves, which is 41 mm/s. Moreover, the spreading distance of water and time t in both directions have a linear relation with t1/2. The fast-self-spreading motion of water along the microgroove is due to its capillary pressure and a local energy barrier at the boundary between two parallel microgrooves. In addition, laser-modified surface roughness and laser-altered chemical composition on the aluminum surface play a role in enhancing the superhydrophilicity and the directional water spreading behavior. Our research can be applied in the fields of microfluidics, lab-on-chip technology, chemical and biological sensors and heat transfer devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou, China (Grant no. 201607010261), the Research Fund Program of Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Functional Materials and Devices, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 11204044), Young Top-Notch Personnel Program of Guangzhou University (Grant no. BJ201711) and the 2018 State Scholarship Fund for University Young Teacher Study Abroad.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Chengyun Zhang, Lang Cheng, Zhifeng Chen, Wei Zhang, Zuolian Liu & Jun Peng

  2. Nanocharacterization Laboratory, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, M5B 2K3, Canada

    Bo Tan

  3. Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (iBEST), Toronto, M5B 1T8, Canada

    Bo Tan

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  1. Chengyun Zhang
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  2. Lang Cheng
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  3. Bo Tan
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  5. Wei Zhang
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  6. Zuolian Liu
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  7. Jun Peng
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Correspondence to Chengyun Zhang.

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Zhang, C., Cheng, L., Tan, B. et al. Directional liquid spreading on laser textured aluminum surface. Microsyst Technol 26, 2767–2776 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-020-04914-6

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