Design & Fabrication of Super-Hydrophobic Surfaces by Laser Micro/Nanoprocessing

Abstract

Super-hydrophobic surfaces exhibit the property of high water repellence. In nature, lotus leaf and other plants have super-hydrophobic surfaces with self-cleaning effect. Taking inspiration from the surface properties of the lotus leaves, the ways to design and fabricate artificial super-hydrophobic surfaces on the most common used materials, including glass and metal substrates by laser micro/nano-processing, are presented in this thesis. Three techniques have been developed to successfully make super-hydrophobic surfaces on glass and metal substrates. The first technique is to make super-hydrophobic transparent surfaces on glass substrates with carbon nanotube cluster array by femtosecond laser micro-machining and chemical vapor deposition. The second technique of super-hydrophobic surface fabrication on metal substrates merely employs laser micro/nano-processing without extra coating. The third technique is to enhance the surface wettability transition of the laser textured metal samples by immersion inside an organic solvent Isopropanol Alcohol.