Results in Materials (Mar 2023)
The isotropic and anisotropic self-cleaning surfaces by using only femtosecond laser
Abstract
The current study describes a technique for surface modification that uses only femtosecond laser pulses that are extremely brief. The development in this research is the feature with periodically and directionally fabricated hierarchical micrometre scaled shapes with nanometer scaled structures. Although the developed features have complex structural makeup, they exhibit isotropic and anisotropic behaviour in superhydrophobicity. The developed Stainless Steel AISI 304 surface with appropriate modification using a femtosecond laser is the used method in this study. The recommended method may be applied to other vulnerable surfaces, including ceramic, polymers, semiconductors, and insulators as well as metals and alloys. The few functional fields that may use this method include self-cleaning surfaces, antibacterial surfaces, anticorrosion surfaces, anti-icing surfaces, and anti-biofouling surfaces. The Opto digital microscope with nanoscale resolution profoundly assisted us in finding developed features in its accuracy. We studied all of the featured topographies using sophisticated imaging tools. The presence of the preplanned features can also be demonstrated by field emission and tungsten filament scanning electron microscopy, and by atomic force microscopy. Studies on hydrophobicity carried out with Matlab assistance included a digital goniometer. Surfaces that are isotropic and directional with hydrophobic behaviour differed by water rolling on 0.5–3.5° tilted angles. All the manufactured superhydrophobic surfaces are reported to be above 155° and at most 167.13° is also a notable value. The results of the conical microspikes, which mimic a lotus leaf, show that they are exclusively hydrophobic isotropic at 0.5° of sliding angle. Biomimetic sinusoidal microgrooves in grass leaves reported remarkably directional or anisotropic hydrophobicity at a 2.5° rolling angle. So that we can elaborate on the use of femtosecond laser on hydrophobicity, we are reporting the results that have been proven to the appropriate fields. The ultrashort pulsed micromachining is used as the low waste machining technique's least time-consuming operation.
