Fabrication of a superhydrophobic and high-glossy copper coating on aluminum substrates

Superhydrophobic metal coatings have been extensively studied in recent years because of their significant potential applications. Unfortunately, most of them lost the original metallic luster due to the micro/nano binary structures. In this paper, a facile method was developed to prepare a superhydrophobic and high-glossy copper coating on aluminum substrates. The bionic lotus leaf surfaces were constructed by electroless plating method and further modified with octadecanethiol. The wettability and gloss could be tuned by the concentration of the precursor. With the increase of CuSO 4 concentration, the surface roughness of the coating raised, thus resulting in increase of contact angle and decrease of glossiness. When the CuSO 4 concentration was 30   mmol/L, the coating exhibited a sub-micro/nano binary structure, in which 20–30   nm protuberances were grown on 300–500   nm mastoids. Such special morphology endowed the coating with superhydrophobic and high-glossy properties, and the coating also showed ultra-low water adhesion and stable dynamic water repellence.