Ultra-low-voltage electrophoretic assembly of extremely water-repellent functional nano-Al films with long lifespan

It is still a bottleneck to design anti-wetting homogeneous metal films or coatings with great stability via by a high-efficiency and low-cost technique with applications in fields of battery, sensors, and electronics, etc. This paper proposed an environment-friendly ultra-low-voltage electrophoretic deposition (EPD) with facile modification post-processing method to fabricate a novel extremely water-repellent functional nano-Al films with evenly loose net-like structures and high purity. The optimized stable suspension consists of water–ethanol with trace nitric acid and polyethyleneimine. Product with an ultra-high contact angle of ~ 171° and extreme low sliding angle of < 1° showed extremely anti-wetting properties, and outstanding water-repellent stability or long lifespan (> 3 years) with great potential applications. These results provide a novel approach with low-cost and less energy consumption for preparing other functional ant-wetting metal coatings with wide potential applications.