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Updated: Sep 27, 2025
Selective Area Modification of Silicon Surface Wettability by Pulsed UV Laser Irradiation in Liquid Environment
Published on: November 9, 2015
One-step laser etching of a bionic hierarchical structure on a silicone rubber surface with thermal and acid/alkali
1Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education; Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure and Hubei Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials and Medical Protective Materials; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China. hengxie@hust.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Superhydrophobic silicone rubbers with robust physical and chemical stability have promising application potential in the field of flexible electronics. A one-step laser etching strategy is proposed for successfully fabricating superhydrophobic silicone rubbers with bioinspired hierarchical micro/nanostructures. Regular and dense micro/nano spheres gradually accumulate on the modified silicone rubber surface with the increase of laser etching cycles. Owing to the bioinspired hierarchical micro/nano spheres, a 5 μL water droplet on the modified silicone rubber surface exhibits a contact angle of 158 ± 3° and a sliding angle of 5 ± 1°. Moreover, the modified silicone rubber can maintain a stable superhydrophobic state in acid/alkali (pH = 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) and thermal environments (50-90 °C). Importantly, the contact angle and sliding angle are adjustable depending on the number of laser etching cycles, which is beneficial for the different application requirements. The proposed method for the fast fabrication of superhydrophobic silicone rubbers with tunable wettability can provide an excellent candidate for the protection of flexible electronics in rainy and acid/alkali environments.
