TY - JOUR
T1 - Capillary-Driven Water Transport by Contrast Wettability-Based Durable Surfaces
AU - Dimitriadis, Theodoros
AU - Stendardo, Luca
AU - Tagliaro, Irene
AU - Coclite, Anna Maria
AU - Antonini, Carlo
AU - Maitra, Tanmoy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.
PY - 2023/6/7
Y1 - 2023/6/7
N2 - Controlling water transport and management is crucial for continuous and reliable system operation in harsh weather conditions. Passive strategies based on nonwetting surfaces are desirable, but so far, the implementation of superhydrophobic coatings into real-world applications has been limited by durability issues and, in some cases, lack of compliance with environmental regulations. Inspired by surface patterning observed on living organisms, in this study we have developed durable surfaces based on contrast wettability for capillary-driven water transport and management. The surface fabrication process combines a hydrophobic coating with hard-anodized aluminum patterning, using a scalable femtosecond laser microtexturing technique. The concept targets heavy-duty engineering applications; particularly in aggressive weather conditions where corrosion is prevalent and typically the anodic aluminum oxide-based coating is used to protect the surface from corrosion, the concept has been validated on anodic aluminum oxide coated aluminum alloy substrates. Such substrates with contrast wettable characteristics show long-term durability in both natural and lab-based artificial UV and corrosion tests where superhydrophobic coatings tend to degrade.
AB - Controlling water transport and management is crucial for continuous and reliable system operation in harsh weather conditions. Passive strategies based on nonwetting surfaces are desirable, but so far, the implementation of superhydrophobic coatings into real-world applications has been limited by durability issues and, in some cases, lack of compliance with environmental regulations. Inspired by surface patterning observed on living organisms, in this study we have developed durable surfaces based on contrast wettability for capillary-driven water transport and management. The surface fabrication process combines a hydrophobic coating with hard-anodized aluminum patterning, using a scalable femtosecond laser microtexturing technique. The concept targets heavy-duty engineering applications; particularly in aggressive weather conditions where corrosion is prevalent and typically the anodic aluminum oxide-based coating is used to protect the surface from corrosion, the concept has been validated on anodic aluminum oxide coated aluminum alloy substrates. Such substrates with contrast wettable characteristics show long-term durability in both natural and lab-based artificial UV and corrosion tests where superhydrophobic coatings tend to degrade.
KW - laser surface texturing
KW - polymer coating
KW - surface durability
KW - water transportation
KW - wettability contrast
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85162841123&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.3c03840
DO - 10.1021/acsami.3c03840
M3 - Article
C2 - 37235501
AN - SCOPUS:85162841123
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 15
SP - 27206
EP - 27213
JO - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
IS - 22
ER -