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Bio-Inspired Hierarchical Micro-/Nanostructures for Anti-Icing Solely Fabricated by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching.

Lansheng ZhangXiaoyang ChuFeng TianYang XuHuan Hu
Published in: Micromachines (2022)
We report a cost-effective and scalable methodology for producing a hierarchical micro-/nanostructured silicon surface solely by metal-assisted chemical etching. It involves two major processing steps of fabricating micropillars and nanowires separately. The process of producing micro-scale structures by masked metal-assisted chemical etching was optimized. Silicon nanowires were created on the micropillar's surface via maskless metal-assisted chemical etching. The hierarchical micro-/nanostructured surface exhibits superhydrophobic properties with a high contact angle of ~156° and a low sliding angle of <2.5° for deionized water. Furthermore, due to the existence of microscale and nanoscale air trapped at the liquid/solid interface, it exhibits a long ice delay time of 2876 s at -5 °C, more than 5 times longer than that of smooth surfaces. Compared to conventional dry etching methods, the metal-assisted chemical etching approach excludes vacuum environments and high-temperature processes and can be applied for applications requiring hierarchical micro-/nanostructured surfaces or structures.
Keyphrases
  • ionic liquid
  • high resolution
  • high temperature
  • biofilm formation
  • staphylococcus aureus
  • atomic force microscopy