Enhanced Procedure for Fabrication of an Ultrahydrophobic Aluminum Alloy Surface using Fatty Acid Modifiers

A superhydrophobic aluminum surface was fabricated through an enhanced low-cost approach and the effects of several relevant factors on static contact angle and sliding angle were investigated. First, the operating parameters including the etching time as well as the reaction time and temperature were varied. Next, the so-called chemical factors including three different fatty acids and five different solvents were examined. The surface was analyzed by means of SEM, ATR-FTIR, EDX, and WCA measurements. The results show that the immersion time of about 5 min and the reaction temperature of about 60 °C were the optimum conditions for the creation of a superhydrophobic Al surface with excellent self-cleaning properties. Overall, the choice of oleic acid and ethanol were found to be the best as the fatty acid and solvent, respectively. The highest contact angle was 163.7° and the lowest sliding angle was about 1°.