Enhancement of surface wettability via micro- and nanostructures by single point diamond turning

Studies on surface wettability have received tremendous interest due to their potential applications in research and industrial processes. One of the strategies to tune surface wettability is modifying surface topography at micro- and nanoscales. In this research, periodic micro- and nanostructures were patterned on several polymer surfaces by ultra-precision single point diamond turning to investigate the relationships between surface topographies at the micro- and nanoscales and their surface wettability. This research revealed that single-point diamond turning could be used to enhance the wettability of a variety of polymers, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene 1000 (PE1000), polypropylene copolymer (PP) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PFTE), which cannot be processed by conventional semiconductor-based manufacturing processes. Materials exhibiting common wettability properties (θ ≈ 90°) changed to exhibit “superhydrophobic” behavior (θ ˃ 150°). Compared with the size of the structures, the aspect ratio of the void space between micro- and nanostructures has a strong impact on surface wettability.