Teflon on steroids: General Industry Coverage

People realize the benefits of hydrophobic, or water-repelling, metals when cooking bacon and eggs in a nonstick frying pan. However, those pans need to be tilted about 70° before the fluids roll off the surface, and the hydrophobic properties fade when the chemical coating eventually wears or peels off.

To overcome the need for temporary coatings, researchers at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester have developed superhydrophobic metals using a femtosecond laser to finely etch structures into metal. With powerful pulses that last on the order of a millionth of a billionth of a second, the laser creates microgrooves, on top of which densely grouped, lumpy nanostructures form. Compared to a Teflon surface, the laser-etched surface exhibits much stronger hydrophobicity and requires only a couple degrees of tilt for water to slide off, said Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics at the university.

The Guo research team at the University of Rochester uses femtosecond lasers to create nano- and micro-structures on a metal surface and make it superhydrophobic.

The researchers have produced superhydrophobicity on platinum, titanium, brass and steel. “I believe with additional research we can create superhydrophobicity on most metals and possibly other materials as well,” Guo said.

“The materials are so strongly water-repellent, the water actually gets bounced off,” he said in an article the university published about the research. “Then the water lands on the surface again, gets bounced off again, and then it will just roll off the surface.”