Design and fabrication of a large-area superhydrophobic metal surface with anti-icing properties engineered using a top-down approach

• Published in: Applied surface science 2015-10, Vol.351, p.920-926
• Main Authors: Jung, Myungki, Kim, Taekyung, Kim, Hokwan, Shin, Ryung, Lee, Jinhyung, Lee, Jungshin, Lee, Joonsang, Kang, Shinill
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aircraft; Anti-icing; Contact angle; Deicing; Durability; Large-area metal superhydrophobic surface; Lattice Boltzmann method; Metal surfaces; Nanostructure; Top–down fabrication methods; Wettability; Wind turbines
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.06.024

•Design methodology to determine optimal geometry for superhydrophobicity.•A top–down fabrication method to form large-area superhydrophobic metal surface.•Comparison of the wettability of metal surface with that from numerical simulation.•Investigation of CA, CAH and anti-icing properties of large-area metal surface. Recently, the development of durable hydrophobic surfaces has received much attention, with anti-icing applications in harsh environments such as aircrafts, wind turbines, power lines, and marine vessels. In this paper we describe a design methodology employing a lattice Boltzmann method to determine the optimal geometry of microstructures to achieve superhydrophobicity. We describe a top-down fabrication method to form superhydrophobic micro-hierarchical metal surface using photolithography, nanoimprinting, and continuous metal-to-metal replication using pulse-reverse-current electrochemical deposition. The surfaces were formed of nickel, which has a large hardness and is resistant to corrosion, making it suitable for use in harsh external conditions. We compared the measured wettability of fabricated micro-hierarchical metal surface with that from numerical simulations. The contact angle and contact angle hysteresis of four metal surfaces were measured (i.e., a bare surface, a random nanostructured surface, an engineered nanostructured surface, and an engineered hierarchical structured surface), and the anti-icing properties of these four metal surfaces were investigated.