Wetting angle stability of steel surface structures after laser treatment

N. Shchedrina (1) , Y. Karlagina (1) , Tatiana Itina (2) , A. Ramos (3) , D. Correa , A. Tokmacheva-Kolobova (4) , S. Manokhin (5) , D. Lutoshina (1) , R. Yatsuk (1) , I. Krylach (1) , G. Odintsova (1)

1 ITMO - National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics [St. Petersburg]
2 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien [Saint Etienne]
3 SEPI-ESIME - SEPI-ESIME-Zacatenco, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Ed.5, 3-r piso, C.P. 07738 Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
4 MISIS - National University of Science and Technology
5 IPCP - Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics

In this work, we have used a nanosecond pulsed fiber laser to modify the wettability characteristics of AISI 430 steel. For this, various surface morphologies were created on the samples by laser irradiation with different overlapping and intensity parameters. Immediately upon laser treatment, all the structured samples acquired either hydrophilic or superhydrophilic wetting angles. All the samples were also analyzed with XRD. Then, lasertreated samples were kept in ambient air and/or low-temperature annealing was applied to reach hydrophobic surface properties. Interestingly, these surfaces returned back practically to their initial wetting state by cleaning in an ultrasonic bath. The obtained results are analyzed based on the existing wettability models.

Keywords: Wetting angle stability; Wettability transition; Hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces; Nanosecond laser structuring

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Chemical and Process Engineering; Engineering Sciences [physics]; Physics [physics]

N. Shchedrina, Y. Karlagina, Tatiana Itina, A. Ramos, D. Correa, et al.. Wetting angle stability of steel surface structures after laser treatment. Optical and Quantum Electronics, 2020, 52 (3), ⟨10.1007/s11082-020-02280-1⟩. ⟨ujm-02986539⟩