Facile and cost-effective fabrication of patternable superhydrophobic surfaces via salt dissolution assisted etching

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surfaces with extremely low wettability have attracted attention globally along with their remarkable characteristics such as anti-icing, anti-sticking, and self-cleaning. In this study, a facile and cost-effective approach of fabricating patternable superhydrophobic surfaces, which can be applied on various substrates (including large area and 3D curvilinear substrates), is proposed with a salt-dissolution-assisted etching process. This novel proposal is environmentally benign (entirely water-based and fluorine-free process). The only required ingredients to realize superhydrophobic surfaces are commercially available salt particles, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and water. No expensive equipment or complex process control is needed. The fabricated superhydrophobic surface shows high static contact angle (��151��) and a low sliding angle (��6��), which correspond to the standards of superhydrophobicity. This surface also shows corrosive liquids (acid/alkali)-resistant characteristics. Moreover, the self-cleaning ability of the fabricated surfaces is explored. As a proof-of-concept application of the present approach, the spatially controllable superhydrophobic patterns on flat/curvilinear substrates are directly drawn with a minimum feature size of 500?��m without the use of expensive tooling, dies, or lithographic masks. ? 2016 Elsevier B.V.