FABRICATION OF HIGHLY-OLEOPHOBIC AND SUPERHYDROPHOBIC SURFACES ON MICROTEXTURED Al SUBSTRATES

Theoretical calculations suggest that creating highly-oleophobic surfaces would require a surface energy lower than that of any known materials. In the present work, we demonstrate microtextured Al substrate surfaces with veins-like micro/nanostructures displaying apparent contact angles (CA) greater than 120°, even with nitromethane (surface tension γ₁ = 37 mN/m). The Al substrate was microtextured by a chemical solution mixed by zinc nitrate hexahydrate, hexamethyltetramine and a little of hydrofluoric acid. A fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) agent was used to tune the surface wettability. The Al substrates were microtextured by veins-like micro/nanostructures and generating a solid-liquid-vapor composite interface. Combination with FAS modification, the Al surfaces resulted in an oleophobicity with CA for nitromethane was 126.3° (152.7° for diethylene glycol, γ₁ = 45.2 mN/m). In addition, the Al surfaces demonstrated a low rolling-off angle with < 6° even for diethylene glycol. However, nitromethane droplet favored to pin on the sample surface even the sample stage is tilted to 90°. It is noted that this highly-oleophobic behavior is induced mainly by topography, which form a composite surface of air and solid with oil drop sitting partially on air. The results are expected to promote the study on self-cleaning applications, especially in the condition with oil contaminations.