Bioinspired Superhydrophobic Surfaces via Laser-Structuring

Abstract

Bioinspired superhydrophobic surfaces are an artificial functional surface that mainly extracts morphological designs from natural organisms. In both laboratory research and industry, there is a need to develop ways of giving large-area surfaces water repellence. Currently, surface modification methods are subject to many challenging requirements such as a need for chemical-free treatment or high surface roughness. Laser micro-nanofabrications are a potential way of addressing these challenges, as they involve non-contact processing and outstanding patterning ability. This review briefly discusses multiple laser patterning methods, which could be used for surface structuring toward creating superhydrophobic surfaces.

Keywords: bioinspired surfaces; femtosecond lasers; graphene; laser structuring; superhydrophobic surfaces.

Figure 1

Bioinspiredsuperhydrophobic surfaces via laser-structuring. (a) LIPSS formed on stainless steel by femtosecond lasers with either linear or circular polarization; (b–d) Large-area LIPSS formed on silicon; Superhydrophobic surfaces structured by DLIP on (e–h) Ti64 (together with LIPSS) and (i–k) on reduced graphene oxide; Superhydrophobic surfaces structured by DLW on (l) Al2024 (combined with DLIP) and (m,n) on polyimide films. Reproduced from Fraggelakis et al. (2019) with permission of Elsevier. Reproduced from Wang et al. (2017) with permission of Nature. Reproduced from Vercillo et al. (2020) with permission of WILEY-VCH. Reproduced from Jiang et al. (2018) with permission of the American Chemical Society. Reproduced from Milles et al. (2019) with permission of Nature. Reproduced from Nasser et al. (2020) with permission of Elsevier.