Fabrication of lotus-leaf-like superhydrophobic surfaces via Ni-based nano-composite electro-brush plating

Superhydrophobic surface has become a research hot topic in recent years due to its excellent performance and wide application prospect. This paper investigates the method to fabricate superhydrophobic surface on carbon steel substrate via two-layer nano-composite electro-brush plating and subsequent surface modification with low free energy materials. The hydrophobic properties of as-prepared coatings were characterized by a water sliding angle (SA) and a water contact angle (CA) measured by the Surface tension instrument. A Scanning electron microscope was used to analyze the surface structure of plating coatings. Anti-corrosion performance of the superhydrophobic coating was characterized by a potentiodynamic polarization curve measured by the Electrochemical workstation. The research result shows that: the superhydrophobic structure can be successfully prepared by plating nano-C/Ni and nano-Cu/Ni two-layer coating on carbon steel substrate under appropriate technology and has similarity with lotus-leaf-like micro/nano composite structure; the contact angle of the as-prepared superhydrophobic coating can be up to 155.5°, the sliding angle is 5°; the coating has better anti-corrosion performance compared with substrate.