Micael Alonso Frank, A. Boccaccini, S. Virtanen
Aug 30, 2014
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0
Influential Citations
30
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Journal
Applied Surface Science
Abstract
Abstract A superhydrophobic stainless steel surface was achieved by changing the morphology applying a sandblasting process and then modifying the surface energy with myristic acid. The effect of chemical etching with HCl and HF on surface morphology was studied; however, chemical etching induced surface morphology led to decrease of the contact angles. According to the Cassie–Baxter and Wenzel models, the effects of the different sizes of SiC powders used in sandblasting were evaluated. In addition, the influence of soaking time in the myristic acid solution on wettability was studied. With optimized surface modification parameters (roughness, myristic acid coating time), a maximum contact angle of 167° was achieved with an average value of 158.3°. A sliding angle over 180° was obtained, which can be explained with the Petal effect. The method presented is facile, low-cost and scalable, and hence with high potential for large-scale applications of stainless steel.