Rapid Fabrication of Bioinspired Compound-Eye Array with Hydrophobicity and Antireflectivity

A strategy combining imprinting with anode oxidation is proposed for preparing an aluminum template with a negative compound-eye array. Injection compression molding with the aluminum template mounted on the mold cavity surface is applied to fabricate polystyrene replicas with a biomimetic compound-eye array on their surfaces. It is demonstrated that orderly microlenses and dense nanopillars with average diameters of approximately 225 μm and 63 nm, respectively, are formed on the polystyrene replicas. The polystyrene replica surfaces with the compound-eye array exhibit both hydrophobicity, with a water contact angle of 151 ± 2° and a rolling angle of 4 ± 1°, and excellent antireflectivity, showing an average reflectance of approximately 4% across the 400-1000 nm wavelength range. The microlens and nanopillar structures on the PS replicas are therefore key to achieving both hydrophobicity and antireflectivity simultaneously. The proposed fast mass-replication approach, which combines imprinting, anode oxidation, and injection compression molding, offers an efficient route for producing bioinspired compound-eye arrays. This strategy shows potential for applications in optoelectronics, photovoltaics, and self-cleaning optical surfaces.