Laser-based fabrication of superhydrophobic glass with high transparency and robustness

Abstract

Superhydrophobic glass has inspiring development prospects in endoscopes, solar panels and other engineering and medical fields. However, the surface topography required to achieve superhydrophobicity will inevitably affect the surface transparency and limit the application of glass materials. To resolve the contradiction between the surface transparency and the robust superhydrophobicity, an efficient and low-cost laser-chemical surface functionalization process was utilized to fabricate superhydrophobic glass surface. The results show that the air can be effectively trapped in surface micro/nanostructure induced by laser texturing, thus reducing the solid-liquid contact area and interfacial tension. The deposition of hydrophobic carbon-containing groups on the surface can be accelerated by chemical treatment, and the surface energy is significantly reduced. The glass surface exhibits marvelous robust superhydrophobicity with a contact angle of 155.8° and a roll-off angle of 7.2° under the combination of hierarchical micro/nanostructure and low surface energy. Moreover, the surface transparency of the prepared superhydrophobic glass was only 5.42% lower than that of the untreated surface. This superhydrophobic glass with high transparency still maintains excellent superhydrophobicity after durability and stability tests. The facile fabrication of superhydrophobic glass with high transparency and robustness provides a strong reference for further expanding the application value of glass materials.

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