Facile fabrication of a superhydrophobic titanium surface with mechanical durability by chemical etching

Improving the mechanical durability is crucial to superhydrophobic metal surfaces. Here we present a simple and efficient method to fabricate a stable superhydrophobic titanium surface with good stretch resistance. Farmland-like textures are generated on the titanium surface by means of a chemical etching method. The effects of reaction conditions on the surface wettability and morphology of the prepared surfaces are determined by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and contact angle measurement. Furthermore, the mechanical durability of the superhydrophobic titanium surface is examined by a tension test, and the relationship among wettability, roughness and tensile strain for the superhydrophobic titanium surface is analyzed. The result shows that the best fabricated superhydrophobic surface not only exhibits good superhydrophobicity (with a water contact angle of 164 ± 1° together with a water tilting angle of about 2°), but also possesses remarkable stretch resistance. Our proposed method will provide guidance in developing facile superhydrophobic metal surfaces with good mechanical durability.