Applied Surface Science 435 (2018) 974–982

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Applied Surface Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apsusc

Full Length Article

Control of laser-ablated aluminum surface wettability to

superhydrophobic or superhydrophilic through simple heat
treatment or water boiling post-processing
Chi-Vinh Ngo, Doo-Man Chun ∗
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Recently, controlling the wettability of a metallic surface so that it is either superhydrophobic or superhy-
Received 3 August 2017 drophilic has become important for many applications. However, conventional techniques require long
Received in revised form fabrication times or involve toxic chemicals. Herein, through a combination of pulse laser ablation and
29 September 2017
simple post-processing, the surface of aluminum was controlled to either superhydrophobic or superhy-
Accepted 21 November 2017
Available online 24 November 2017
drophilic in a short time of only a few hours. In this study, grid patterns were first fabricated on aluminum
using a nanosecond pulsed laser, and then additional post-processing without any chemicals was used.
Under heat treatment, the surface became superhydrophobic with a contact angle (CA) greater than 150◦
Keywords:
Wettability control and a sliding angle (SA) lower than 10◦ . Conversely, when immersed in boiling water, the surface became
Superhydrophobic aluminum surface superhydrophilic with a low contact angle. The mechanism for wettability change was also explained.
Superhydrophilic aluminum surface The surfaces, obtained in a short time with environmentally friendly fabrication and without the use of
Nanosecond pulse laser ablation toxic chemicals, could potentially be applied in various industry and manufacturing applications such as
Heat treatment self-cleaning, anti-icing, and biomedical devices.
Boiling water treatment © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction where e is the equilibrium contact angle of a water droplet on a flat

Wettability is one of the primary properties of a solid surface
and is characterized by water droplet contact angle. When the con-
tact angle (CA) is less than 90◦ , the surface is hydrophilic; when
the CA is greater than 90◦ , the surface is hydrophobic. When the
CA is greater than 150◦ , the solid surface exhibits superhydropho-
bicity with the lotus effect (i.e., sliding angle (SA) less than 10◦ ) or
the pinning effect (i.e., SA greater than 10◦ or no SA) [1,2]. When
a water droplet is completely spread on the surface, leading to
a water contact angle less than 5◦ [3–5] or 10◦ [6,7], the surface
becomes superhydrophilic. It is well known that surface roughness
(micro/nano structure) and surface chemistry are two main factors
in the formation of superhydrophobic or superhydrophilic surfaces.
To explain wettability in terms of the micro or nano structure, the
Wenzel model [8] (Eq. (1)) and the Cassie-Baxter [9] model (Eq. (2))
are used:
cosw = rcose
cosc = ϕ1 cose − ϕ2
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dmchun@ulsan.ac.kr (D.-M. Chun).
surface, w is the contact angle on a fully-wetted rough surface, r is
the roughness factor of the micro/nano structure, c is the contact
angle on a rough surface in a partially wetted state, ϕ1 is the area
fraction of the water-solid surface, and ϕ2 is the area fraction of the
water-air surface.
The Wenzel state represents enhancement of the inherent
wetting state of a surface by incrementing its roughness. This
means that a hydrophilic surface becomes more hydrophilic and
a hydrophobic surface becomes more hydrophobic as roughness
increases. In contrast, the Cassie-Baxter state only represents the
enhancement of a hydrophobic surface by changing its rough-
ness. Both superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces have
broad applications in daily life, industry, and agriculture, such
as self-cleaning, water harvesting, antifogging, fluid transport,
and biomedical devices [10–16]. For this reason, more and more
technologies have been developed for the fabrication of superhy-
drophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces, including molding, wet
(1)
chemical reaction, sol-gel processing, solution immersion, electro-
(2) chemical deposition, and more [13,17–22].
A laser processing technique was recently developed to
produce superhydrophobic surface structures, with advantages
such as reproducibility, precision, and less surface contamina-
tion. After laser ablation, the metal surface is hydrophilic with

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2017.11.185
0169-4332/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 C.-V. Ngo, D.-M. Chun / Applied Surface Science 435 (2018) 974–982 975

Fig. 1. Schematic of a nanosecond pulse laser ablation system.

nano/microstructures. When exposing a laser-ablated surface to
the ambient air for a relatively long time, the wettability tran-
sition time from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic is between
two weeks to two months, depending on the metal. Aluminum
surfaces subjected to nanosecond or picosecond laser ablation
require 30–40 days to become superhydrophobic or near super-
hydrophobic [23,24]. To reduce the long exposure time required in
ambient air to become superhydrophobic, another approach is to
add a chemical coating to the laser-ablated nano/microstructures
[25–27]. However, applying a coating material to a laser-ablated
surface is undesirable because the coating process requires toxic
chemicals and cannot produce a durable superhydrophobic sur-
face. Other researchers have used micro end-milling or embossing
technique to investigate wettability [28,29]. However, they could
not achieve superhydrophobicity or great superhydrophobicity
with high contact angle (greater than 150◦ ) and low sliding angle
(smaller than 10◦ ) on metal substrates. To shorten the wettabil-
ity transition time, to remove any additional chemical coating
processes, and to achieve high performance of superhydrophobic
metallic surface, a simple and environmentally friendly heat treat-
ment post-processing method for copper and stainless steel was
introduced in our previous research [30,31].
In addition to superhydrophobic surfaces, superhydrophilic sur-
faces have attracted significant interest recently. However, most
research has focused on TiO2 and ZnO films and the use of high-
temperature annealing, surface acid treatment, plasma treatment,
and sputtering [32–35]. Some studies used boiling water to make
flat aluminum surfaces hydrophilic through the appearance of
nanostructures, then applied a chemical coating to make them
superhydrophobic [36,37]. Research on the boiling water treatment
of laser-ablated aluminum to make it superhydrophilic has not yet
been conducted.
In the present research, the wettability of aluminum surfaces,
i.e. superhydrophobicity or superhydrophilicity, was controlled by

Fig. 2. Fabrication method using nanosecond laser ablation and simple post-processing (heat treatment or boiling water treatment).
976 C.-V. Ngo, D.-M. Chun / Applied Surface Science 435 (2018) 974–982
facile post-processing without the use of any toxic chemical coat-
ings. When using heat treatment on laser-ablated aluminum, the
surface became superhydrophobic. The material, temperature, and
mechanism are different than in previous research on copper and
stainless steel [30,31] due to the initial properties of aluminum.
When laser-ablated aluminum was immersed in boiling water,
the surface became superhydrophilic. Both superhydrophobic and
superhydrophilic aluminum surfaces showed good stability. The
mechanism for wettability change after heat treatment or boil-
ing water treatment was also explained. Superhydrophobic and
superhydrophilic surfaces could potentially be used in industry
and manufacturing for various applications such as self-cleaning,
anti-icing, and biomedical devices.
2. Experiment
2.1. Fabrication method
Aluminum substrate (Al 99.999%, The Nilaco Corporation, Japan)
with 0.5 mm thickness was used for this research. A Q-switched
Nd:Yag 355 nm UV nanosecond-pulsed laser system was used, as
shown in Fig. 1. The laser source provided the pulsed laser beam,
which was guided by mirrors. The attenuator was used to con-
Fig. 3. (a–c) Top-view FESEM images and (d-f) enlarged and tilted images of an aluminum surface just after laser ablation, a laser-ablated aluminum surface after heat
treatment, and a laser-ablated aluminum surface after boiling water treatment.
trol the power of the laser, while the beam expander controlled
the beam diameter. A focusing lens with a focal spot diameter of
5 ␮m and an effective focal length of 49 mm was used to converge
the laser beam during fabrication. A window was put between the
focusing lens and the substrate to protect the lens. The substrate
was put on a 3-axis stage to control the movements in the x-, y-,
and z-axes during fabrication. The 3-axis stage and the laser source
were controlled by a computer. A nanosecond-pulsed laser was
used in this research because it is widely used in industry and can
produce relatively large burrs. The burrs play an important role
as microstructures and can support the water droplet to minimize
the contact area between the water and the aluminum surface in
a superhydrophobic wetting condition. A grid pattern was used in
this research because it could be easily fabricated with a short fab-
rication time (less than half an hour for a 5 x 5 mm2 fabrication
area) and exhibited isotropic wettability [38,39]. The fabrication
process is shown in Fig. 2. The aluminum substrates were ablated
with 3 W of laser power by the nanosecond-pulsed laser with a
200 ␮m step size, which is the distance between two laser beam
paths. Just after laser ablation, the samples were treated with sim-
ple post-processes to control the wettability. When placed in the
oven at 200 ◦ C for 10 min and 120 min, the laser-ablated aluminum
surfaces showed increased contact angles. However, the treatment
 C.-V. Ngo, D.-M. Chun / Applied Surface Science 435 (2018) 974–982 977

Fig. 4. Comparison of FESEM images of an aluminum surface just after laser ablation and a laser-ablated aluminum surface with boiling water treatment: (a–b) at micro-burrs,
(c-d) at wall along the inner micro-burrs, and (e-f) on the flat area between the micro-burr arrays.

time was not sufficient to obtain superhydrophobic aluminum with
an SA less than 10◦ . Therefore, to achieve superhydrophobicity,
360 min (6 h) of treatment time was chosen. When immersed in
boiling water for 10 min and 120 min, the laser-ablated aluminum
surfaces showed decreased contact angles. A comparison of boil-
ing water on a flat aluminum surface and the laser-ablated surface
was also carried out to evaluate the role of the micro-burrs caused
by laser ablation. Three samples for each case were fabricated for
reproducibility. After both post-processes, the surfaces were placed
in ambient air for a long time (15 days and 60 days), and the wet-
tability was evaluated again to assess the stability of the fabricated
surfaces.
2.2. Surface characterization
The morphology of the laser-ablated aluminum surfaces was
examined using field-emission scanning electron microscopy
(FESEM, JSM-6500F, Jeol Co., Japan). In addition, 3D laser scanning
confocal microscopy (VK-X200 series, Keyence, Japan) was used to
measure the micro-burr height. The surface chemistry was ana-
lyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD, ULTIMA IV, Rigaku, Japan), point
energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (point-EDS, JSM-6500F, Jeol
Co., Japan), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR, Var-
ian 670-IR, Varian Inc., USA).
The surface wettability was defined by a contact angle meter
(SmartDrop, Femtofab Co. Ltd., Korea). A water droplet volume of

Table 1
Wettability and stability of laser-ablated aluminum with and without heat treatment.

Sample CA & SA CA & SA after 14 days CA & SA after 60 days

o o o
Laser ablation (no heat treatment) 42 ± 1 & No SA 41 ± 1 & No SA 42 ± 1 & No SA
o
Laser ablation + heat treatment for 10’ 58 ± 8 & No SA Not measured Not measured
o o o o o o
Laser ablation + heat treatment for 120’ 174 ± 3 & 34 ± 9 172 ± 5 & 21 ± 9 174 ± 1 & 10 ± 3
o o o o o o
Laser ablation + heat treatment for 360’ 176 ± 1 & 6 ± 1 176 ± 1 & 5 ± 1 176 ± 1 & 4 ± 1
978 C.-V. Ngo, D.-M. Chun / Applied Surface Science 435 (2018) 974–982

Table 2
Wettability and stability of flat and laser-ablated aluminum with and without boiling water treatment.

Sample CA CA after 14 days CA after 60 days

o o o
Flat (no boiling water treatment) 100 ± 1 100 ± 1 100 ± 1
o o o
Flat + boiling water treatment for 10’ 50 ± 1 51 ± 2 61 ± 1
o o o
Flat + boiling water treatment for 120’ 20 ± 4 31 ± 2 35 ± 2
o o o
Laser ablation (no boiling water treatment) 13 ± 2 12 ± 1 33 ± 1
o o o
Laser ablation + boiling water treatment for 10’ 0 0 0
o o o
Laser ablation + boiling water treatment for 120’ 0 0 0

1 ␮L was chosen for measuring the superhydrophilic surfaces; how-
ever, this 1 ␮L volume could not be separated from the needle of
the contact angle meter machine to place on the superhydrophobic
surfaces. Therefore, a 10 ␮L water droplet was used for the super-
hydrophobic surfaces.
3. Result and discussion
3.1. Morphology
ment did not show any clear differences from the surfaces just after
laser ablation. However, the laser-ablated aluminum surfaces after
boiling water treatment showed a slight difference in nanostruc-
ture, as shown in Fig. 4. At the micro-burrs, the morphology did not
show a clear difference before and after boiling water treatment.
However, the morphology was clearly different at the wall along
the inner micro-burrs and on the flat area between the micro-burr
arrays. Therefore, the nanostructure of the laser-ablated aluminum
surface did change after boiling water treatment.

In Fig. 3, the morphology of the aluminum surface just after laser
ablation, the laser-ablated aluminum after heat treatment, and
the laser-ablated aluminum after boiling water treatment are pre-
sented. The grid pattern was fabricated uniformly on the aluminum
surface. After post-processing (heat treatment or boiling water
treatment), the microscale morphologies of the micro-burr struc-
tures did not change. The height of the burrs was approximately
19 ± 3 ␮m before and after post-processing. When investigating at
nanoscale, the laser-ablated aluminum surfaces after heat treat-
3.2. Wettability
3.2.1. Wettability of the surface with heat treatment
o
After laser ablation, the CA of the aluminum surface was 42 ± 1 .
This CA did not change over time, even 60 days, as shown in
Table 1. However, after heat treatment at 200 ◦ C, the laser-ablated
aluminum surface exhibited increased CAs. When the treatment
time increased, the CA also increased. The laser-ablated aluminum
surfaces with 10 min of heat treatment did not become superhy-

Fig. 5. Complete spreading time of laser-ablated aluminum with boiling water treatment for 10 min and 120 min and the stability of the wettability.
 C.-V. Ngo, D.-M. Chun / Applied Surface Science 435 (2018) 974–982 979

Table 3
Chemical composition of the unprocessed aluminum surface, on burrs just after laser ablation, and on burrs after post processing.

Element Unprocessed On micro-burrs On flat area between micro-burrs

surface
Surface just Heated surface Boiled surface Surface just after Heated surface Boiled surface
after laser laser ablation
ablation

C 0.00 2.26 14.07 4.29 0.00 4.98 0.00

O 3.56 67.18 59.23 74.96 7.83 6.73 18.40
Al 96.44 30.57 26.72 20.76 92.17 88.29 81.60
O/Al 0.04 2.20 2.22 3.61 0.08 0.08 0.23
C/Al 0.00 0.07 0.53 0.21 0.00 0.06 0.00

drophobic, but the laser-ablated aluminum surfaces with 120 min
of heat treatment had superhydrophobic properties with large SAs.
Even over time (2 months) in ambient air, the SA of laser-ablated
samples with 120 min of heat treatment continuously decreased,
with the SA reaching approximately 10◦ with a large deviation. The
laser-ablated aluminum surfaces with 120 min of heat treatment
are not appropriate for industry and manufacturing. For industrial
applications that require SA lower than 10◦ , the laser-ablated alu-
minum with 6 h of heat treatment is suitable because the surfaces
o o
had high CA (176 ± 1 ) and small SA (6 ± 1 ). In addition, over time
(2 months) in ambient air, the CA and the SA showed good stability.
3.2.2. Wettability of the surface with boiling water treatment
The flat aluminum and the laser-ablated aluminum with and
without boiling water treatment were compared to analyze the
wettability change caused by boiling water treatment. As shown in
Table 2, the flat aluminum surface without boiling water treatment
had hydrophobic properties, with a contact angle of 100◦ , and was
stable over time (2 months). After immersing in boiling water for
10 min and 120 min, the CAs were reduced to 50◦ and 20◦ , respec-
tively. However, these samples were just hydrophilic, and the CAs
tended to increase toward hydrophobicity over the two months.
In other words, boiling water treatment alone on flat aluminum
was not sufficient to make the surface superhydrophilic. Using laser
ablation, the laser-ablated aluminum surface became hydrophilic
with a small CA of 13◦ . Using laser ablation alone also did not make
the samples superhydrophilic, and the CA of the laser-ablated alu-
minum increased over 2 months. When combining laser ablation
and boiling water treatment (10 and 120 min), the aluminum sur-
o
face became superhydrophilic with a CA of almost 0 . The CAs of
o
the samples were almost 0 over the time (2 months).
To evaluate the effect of boiling treatment time on the super-
hydrophilic performance, an approach other than contact angle
measurement was carried out. The time for a 1 ␮L water droplet
to completely spread on the aluminum surface was measured, as
shown in Fig. 5. The samples immersed in boiling water for 120 min
required approximately 0.5 s to completely spread, while the sam-
ples immersed in boiling water for 10 min required a relatively
longer time (approximately 1.5 s). Thus, the longer was boiling
water treatment carried out on the laser-ablated aluminum, the
better was the performance of the superhydrophilic surface, espe-
cially in complete spreading. However, a relatively long immersion
time in the boiling water might not be efficient, especially for indus-
try usage, because of the effect of treatment time on the rates of
reaction between various grades of aluminum and boiling water
[40]. Except for the purest aluminum, the rate of reaction is ini-
tially very rapid but quickly slows and then stops after about 4–8
hours of immersion. With the purest aluminum, the reaction con-
tinued for at least 7 days without any appreciable slowing. Based
on this research, 2 h of immersion in boiling water might be suf-
ficient for fabrication of superhydrophilic aluminum surfaces in
industry because of the short fabrication time and the high rate
of reaction. Over time, the samples immersed in boiling water
for 120 min showed good stability, while the samples treated for
10 min showed improved complete spreading time.
3.3. Mechanism
3.3.1. Superhydrophobic surface with heat treatment
After laser ablation, the aluminum surface was oxidized by an
increase in oxygen content, as shown in Table 3. After heat treat-
ment, the laser-ablated aluminum surface showed a clear increase
in carbon content on the micro-burrs. The flat area between the

Fig. 6. (a) XRD results for unprocessed aluminum, laser-ablated aluminum, heat-treated aluminum, and boiling-water-treated aluminum; and (b) FT-IR results of laser-ablated
aluminum and heat-treated aluminum.
980 C.-V. Ngo, D.-M. Chun / Applied Surface Science 435 (2018) 974–982
Fig. 7. Performance of superhydrophobic aluminum surfaces: (a) touch of a water droplet, (b) bouncing effect, and (c) self-cleaning effect.
micro-burrs showed no clear difference before and after heat treat-
ment. The main reason for the wettability change might be the
increase in carbon amount. However, there was no change in struc-
ture between before and after heat treatment, as shown in Fig. 6a.
Thus, the increase in carbon content might be due to organic
matter from the ambient air. Organic adsorption on the micro-
burrs was proposed as an explanation for the wettability change.
This point was confirmed by FT IR measurement, as shown in
Fig. 6b. After laser ablation, the aluminum surface appeared to
show an –OH functional group on the micro-burrs. The presence
of this group on metal oxide films is well-known to be related to
organic adsorption [41,42]. Therefore, after laser ablation, metal
oxides with an –OH group could adsorb organic matter from the
ambient air, causing several weak hydrophobic groups (–CH3 ) to
appear on the burrs. Under heat treatment, the organic adsorption
process was accelerated, and strong hydrophobic groups (–CH3 ,
–CH2 –) appeared on the heat-treated aluminum micro-burrs. The
bands at approximately 1259 and 2960 cm−1 is attributed to strong
and medium-strong hydrophobic –CH3 group [43–46]; while the
bands at approximately 1410, 2850, and 2925 cm−1 correspond to
medium and medium-strong hydrophobic –CH2 – group [43,44,46].
At the same time, the –OH group reduced intensity after heat treat-
ment. Through no change in structure, increase in carbon content,
and the appearance of strong hydrophobic groups, organic adsorp-
tion on laser-ablated aluminum micro-burrs was demonstrated.
The organic matter could have formed a hydrophobic layer on the
micro-burr structure so that the laser-ablated aluminum surface
became superhydrophobic. This mechanism is also in good agree-
ment with other studies’ findings; organic adsorption was found
on laser-ablated aluminum in ambient air for a long time [24,47]
and was also observed on aluminum oxide [48–51].
3.3.2. Superhydrophilic surface withboiling water treatment
When an aluminum surface is immersed in boiling water, a
pseudoboehmite nanostructure is formed due to the well-known
reaction between aluminum and boiling water, as shown in Eq. (3)
[52]:
3
Al + 2 H2 O → AlOOH + H2 (3)
2
After boiling water treatment, the laser-ablated aluminum
surface appeared to have a new structure of pseudoboehmite nano-
structure (AlOOH), as shown in Fig. 6a. Additionally, more Al2 O3
peaks were also found after treatment. The atomic ratio between
oxygen and aluminum (O/Al) in the EDS results also confirmed the
appearance of AlOOH and Al2 O3 . While the O/Al atomic ratio at the
micro-burrs just after laser ablation and after heat treatment did
not change much (approximately 2.2), the O/Al atomic ratio at the
micro-burrs after boiling water treatment markedly increased (to
approximately 3.54). Other studies have also found that a high O/Al
atomic ratio indicates the formation of AlOOH structures [53,54].
Moreover, on the flat area between the micro-burr arrays after boil-
ing water treatment, the O/Al ratio also increased compared to that
just after laser ablation and that after heat treatment, confirm-
ing the appearance of a new nanostructure, pseudoboehmite. In
Fig. 6b, the FT IR measurement also confirmed appearance of pseu-
doboehmite structure. Strong intensity of –OH group was found
at approximately 3300 cm−1 , typical of pseudoboehmite [55]. The
bands at approximately 884 cm−1 is attributed to the Al O bonds of
pseudoboehmite [56] and the bands at approximately 1068 cm−1
corresponds to the ıs Al O–H mode of pseudoboehmite [55–58].
The FESEM, XRD, EDS, and FT IR results confirm appearance of
pseudoboehmite structure (AlOOH) on laser-ablated aluminum
 C.-V. Ngo, D.-M. Chun / Applied Surface Science 435 (2018) 974–982
surface after boiling water treatment. Moreover, AlOOH and Al2 O3
structures are well-known for their hydrophilic properties, so the
mechanism for the change in wettability to a superhydrophilic state
is explained by the combination of hydrophilic micro-burrs and the
formation of a new hydrophilic nanostructure, pseudoboehmite.
3.4. Performance of superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic
surfaces for potential applications
The performance of superhydrophobic aluminum surfaces was
demonstrated by the touch of a water droplet, the bouncing effect,
and the self-cleaning effect. A 7 ␮L water droplet was placed on
the superhydrophobic aluminum surface, as shown in Fig. 7a and
Video S1. The water droplet was compressed but still could not be
separated from the needle to be placed on the aluminum surface.
Additionally, the water droplet vibrated after moving the needle
up. The good performance of the superhydrophobic aluminum is
also presented in Fig. 7b and Video S2. Then, 10 ␮L water droplets
were continuously dropped from a height of 3 cm onto the 8◦ -tilted
aluminum surface. The water droplets bounced off the surface. This
demonstrates the good water-repellent properties of the obtained
superhydrophobic aluminum surfaces. In addition, white powders
to imitate dust and spores were put on the superhydrophobic alu-
minum for the self-cleaning test, as shown in Fig. 7c and Video S3. A
10 ␮L water droplet easily removed the white powder from the 8◦ -
tilted aluminum surface. With good superhydrophobic properties,
the obtained surface could be used for self-cleaning, water adhesion
control, water storage, anti-icing, and so on.
The performance of superhydrophilic aluminum surfaces was
demonstrated by complete spreading time, as shown in Fig. 5 and
Video S4. The water droplet spread completely in a short time and
was held strongly on the superhydrophilic aluminum. By control-
ling the boiling water treatment time, the complete spreading time
was also controlled. Therefore, the superhydrophilic aluminum
surfaces could be used as sensors for liquid detection, fast water
absorption, and water absorption control applications.
4. Conclusion
Using a combination of nanosecond pulse laser ablation and the
proper simple post-processing (heat treatment or boiling water
treatment), the wettability of a hydrophilic aluminum surface can
be controlled as either superhydrophobic or superhydrophilic. The
fabrication process is environmentally friendly, convenient, and
suitable for industry because of its short fabrication time fabrication
(a few hours), lack of toxic chemicals, reproducibility, and precision.
The laser-ablated aluminum surface became superhydrophobic
with good performance after placing in the oven at 200 ◦ C for
360 min (6 h), while it became superhydrophilic after immersing in
boiling water for 120 min (2 h). The mechanism for the wettability
change to a superhydrophobic state was explained by a combi-
nation of the micro-burr structure and the hydrophobic organic
adsorption on the micro-burrs. The mechanism for the wettability
change to a superhydrophilic state was explained by a combi-
nation of the hydrophilic micro-burr structure and hydrophilic
nanostructures of pseudoboehmite. The performance of the super-
hydrophobic and superhydrophilic aluminum surfaces was also
demonstrated. The technique described in this research can be eas-
ily implemented in industry to manufacture superhydrophobic or
superhydrophilic aluminum surfaces for various applications such
as self-cleaning, water storage, anti-icing, sensors for liquid detec-
tion, fast water absorption, and more.
981
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF) grant (No. NRF- 2015R1C1A1A02036321).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2017.11.
185
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