Wettability of metal coatings with biomimic micro textures

By combining duplication and electroplating methods, three surface micro textures of rice leaf, lotus leaf and snake skin were duplicated on nickel coatings. Measurements of scanning electron microscopes and optical microscope indicate the micro textures of the replicas are almost in accordance with their biological sources. The nanostructures replicated from snake skin suggest that this technique can achieve features with resolution as low as hundreds of nanometers in width and tens of nanometers in depth on nickel coatings. Contact angle measurements on the replicas surfaces of rice leaf and lotus leaf show the wettability of the metal surfaces was improved with hydrophobicity after duplicated with bio-mimicking micro textures.