Fast fabrication of superhydrophobic metallic surface using nanosecond laser texturing and low-temperature annealing

Recently, cost-effective nanosecond laser texturing has been used for the fabrication of superhydrophobic surface on metals such as copper and brass. However, the wettability change from hydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity took a relatively long time from several days to several months since the textured surface was exposed to ambient conditions. To reduce the time required for wettability changes for industrial applications, a facile post process was introduced. This paper demonstrates fast wettability change of a nanosecond laser textured copper surface from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic using additional low-temperature annealing (100 °C). Surface characteristics were evaluated to explain the underlying mechanism.