Hydrophobic and Anti-Fouling Performance of Surface on Parabolic Morphology

Abstract

The hydrophobicity and anti-fouling properties of materials have important application value in industrial and agricultural production and people’s daily life. To study the relationship between the unit width L₀ of the parabolic hydrophobic material and the hydrophobicity and anti-fouling properties, the rough surface structure of the parabolic with different widths was prepared by grinding with different SiC sandpapers, and further, to obtain hydrophobic materials through chemical oxidation and chemical etching, and modification with stearic acid (SA). The morphology, surface wetting and anti-fouling properties of the modified materials were characterized by SEM and contact angle measurement. The oil–water separation performance and self-cleaning performance of the materials were explored. The surface of the modified copper sheet forms a rough structure similar to a paraboloid. When ground with 1500 grit SiC sandpaper, it is more conducive to increase the hydrophobicity of the copper sheet surface and increase the contact angle of water droplets on the copper surface. Additionally, the self-cleaning and anti-fouling experiments showed that as L₀ decreases, copper sheets were less able to stick to foreign things such as soil, and the better the self-cleaning and anti-fouling performance was. Based on the oil–water separation experiment of copper mesh, the lower L₀ has a higher oil–water separation efficiency. The results showed that material with parabolic morphology has great self-cleaning, anti-fouling, and oil–water separation performance. The smaller the L₀ was, the larger the contact angle and the better hydrophobic performance and self-cleaning performance were.