Controllable growth of durable superhydrophobic coatings on a copper substrate via electrodeposition

Superhydrophobic coatings on a copper substrate are grown via electrodeposition followed by thermal annealing. The influence of the deposition potential, zinc ion concentration, deposition time, annealing temperature and annealing time on the wetting properties was systematically investigated. The coating electrodeposited at -1.35 V for 25 min and annealed at 190 °C for 60 min exhibited excellent superhydrophobicity with a contact angle as high as 170 ± 2° and a sliding angle of almost 0°. The water drop can fully bounce as a balloon when impinging such a solid surface, exhibiting excellent non-sticking properties. By adopting various characterization methods, it was demonstrated that the as-prepared superhydrophobic surfaces also exhibited properties of anticorrosion, antiabrasion, long-term stability and durability and large buoyancy force, which offer an effective strategy and promising industrial applications for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces on various metallic materials.