Preparation of superhydrophobic surface by laser ablation-chemical etching process on stainless steel

Abstract

The paper provides a method of combining nanosecond pulsed laser ablation with chemical etching to fabricate superhydrophobic surface on AISI 316L stainless steel. Laser ablation is used to fabricate micro patterns, then chemical etching is employed to remove surface oxides and contaminants to form anisotropic microstructures. Unlike the hydrophilic laser ablated surface, the specimen treated by laser ablation-chemical etching (LACE) shows superhydrophobicity and do not require low surface energy agent. Hence, the superhydrophobic surface obtained by LACE method has great potential in the fields of self-cleaning, microfluidics and liquid directional transportation.