Metallic articles with hydrophobic surfaces

摘要

Articles containing fine-grained and/or amorphous metallic coatings/layers on at least part of their exposed surfaces are imprinted with surface structures to raise the contact angle for water in the imprinted areas at room temperature by equal to or greater than 10°, when compared to the flat and smooth metallic material surface of the same composition.

主权项

1. An article comprising:
a metallic material including a metallic layer having a thickness of at least 10 microns positioned on the article and having a microstructure which is fine-grained with an average grain size between 2 nm and 5,000 nm, the metallic layer forming at least a part of an exposed surface of the article; said metallic layer of said metallic material having at least an exposed patterned surface portion having surface structures having a width of at least 5 microns and a height of between at least 5 microns to about 100 microns incorporated directly therein to increase the contact angle for water at room temperature to over 100 degrees, said metallic layer having an inherent contact angle for water at room temperature of less than 90 degrees when measured on a smooth exposed surface portion of said metallic layer which has a maximum surface roughness Ra of 0.25 microns, wherein the exposed surface of said inherently hydrophilic metallic layer is rendered hydrophobic without the addition of additional hydrophobic materials or coatings applied to the exposed surface.