Method of coating a metallic article with a surface of tailored wettability

摘要

A method of coating a metallic article having an at least part-metallic surface comprising a first metal, with a surface having a pre-determined wettability, the method at least comprising the steps of: (a) coating at least a part of the metallic article with a layer of a second metal to provide a metal-metal bonded surface, said surface being rough either prior to or because of step (a); and (b) contacting the metal-metal bonded surface of step (a) with a material to provide the surface having the pre-determined wettability. The first metal may be one or more of the group comprising: iron, zinc, copper, tin, nickel and aluminum, and alloys thereof including steel, brass, bronze and nitinol for example. Preferably, the second metal is coated onto the first metal using electroless Galvanic deposition. The nature of the coated metallic article is non-limiting, as the ability of the present invention is to provide a tailored surface with a pre-determined wettability thereon, including superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic wettability. This allows the invention to be capable of application to a wide range of metal types used in different fields.

主权项

1. A method of coating a metallic article, at least a part of a surface of the metallic article comprising a first metal, the method at least comprising the steps of:
(a) coating by a spontaneous redox reaction at least a part of the metallic article with a layer of a second metal to provide a metal-metal bonded surface, wherein the metal-metal bonded surface is a first metal-second metal bonded surface, wherein the redox reaction includes an oxidation reaction of the first metal and a reduction reaction to form the second metal; and (b) contacting the metal-metal bonded surface of step (a) with a hydrophobic material, wherein the metal-metal bonded surface has a double roughness having a plurality of first roughness structures on a microscale between 100 nm and 100 μm, and wherein a second roughness structure is on each first roughness structure, the second roughness structure being nanoscale extensions or protuberances of less than 30% of the size of the first roughness structure, such that the method provides a superhydrophobic surface having a contact angle with water of greater than 150°.