Femtosecond laser engraving micro/nanostructured poly (ether-ether-ketone) surface with superhydrophobic and photothermal ability

Multifunctional surfaces with excellent superhydrophobic and photothermal performances have attracted considerable attention owing to their tremendous potential for many fields including anti-icing/deicing and sterilizing. In this work, a one-step femtosecond laser writing method is used to fabricate superhydrophobic and photothermal poly (ether-ether-ketone) (PEEK) surfaces with hierarchical micro/nano structures. Through tuning the laser scanning speed, the wettability and light absorptivity of as-prepared sample surfaces can be modified accordingly. Among them, the superhydrophobic sample surface shows strong repulsive (a contact angle of ∼165.2 °) and low adhesion (a sliding angle of ∼3 °) to water. Moreover, room storage and heating substrate tests indicate that the surface has excellent durability and thermal stability. The average light absorptivity of superhydrophobic sample is up to ∼96.5% in the range of 220–1400 nm wavelength, which endows it with perfect photothermal performance. Under simulated light irradiation, the surface temperature of superhydrophobic sample increases to 93.8 ℃ within 6 min, which is higher 32.5 ℃ than that of the pristine PEEK surface. This work provides an efficient and facile approach for preparing such multifunctional surfaces on PEEK.