Abstract
In this study, the carbon steel substrates were coated with nickel (Ni), zinc oxide (ZnO) and ZnO/Ni coatings by electrodeposition approach and modified with stearic acid (STA)-ethanol solution to obtain STA-Ni, STA-ZnO and STA-ZnO/Ni coatings, respectively. The surface morphologies, chemical compositions and surface roughnesses of the modified coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM), respectively. The wettability tests shows that the water contact angle (WCA) of the modified coatings with micro/nanostructure are all greater than 150° and the sliding angle (SA) are all less than 10°, especially the STA-ZnO/Ni coating with a WCA of 164.3° and a SA of 2.3°, displaying the prominent superhydrophobicity. Interestingly, the three modified coatings all exhibited excellent mechanical stabilities and self-cleaning properties after being scratched by a knife blade, peeled off by adhesive tape, abrased by sandpaper, and contaminated by chalk dust. Moreover, the corrosion resistance tests confirms that the STA-ZnO/Ni superhydrophobic coating possess higher durability and anticorrosion performance than that of STA-ZnO and STA-Ni coatings. The superhydrophobic STA-ZnO/Ni composite coating prepared by two-step electrodeposition combined with low surface energy material modification designed in this work shows great potential and prospect in industrial application.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).