A Superhydrophobic Self-Cleaning and Anti-Icing Aluminum Sheet Fabricated by Alkaline Solution

The aerospace industry has extremely strict requirements for metal materials, especially the stability of the material at a low temperature and in harsh environment. Herein, superhydrophobic anti-icing aluminum sheets are fabricated with traditional hydrothermal reaction and modified by (heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetradecyl) triethoxysilane (AC-FAS). Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to analyze the surface morphology and chemical compositions. The satisfactory properties of superhydrophobicity and anti-icing result from its dense microcosmic array structure and its low surface energy. The prepared superhydrophobic aluminum surface can realize wettability alteration, in which the contact angle increases from 118° on the original aluminum sheets to 155° with a rolling angle of 10°. In addition, the prepared superhydrophobic surface has anti-icing and self-cleaning ability. According to the aforementioned results, it is believed that the superhydrophobic aluminum sheets can be an excellent candidate in the aerospace field.