A general approach for fabrication of superhydrophobic and superamphiphobic surfaces

A simple one-step electrodeposition process is developed for the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces on a series of substrates such as copper, titanium, iron, zinc, aluminum, and stannum. The hierarchical micro- and nanostructures endow these surfaces with excellent super-hydrophobicity and the resulting surfaces show superhydrophobicity even for some corrosive liquids including salt solutions and acidic and basic solutions at all pH values. Importantly, this approach can be easily applied to other systems such as the fabrication of superamphiphobic surfaces as long as the substrates are electrically conductive. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.