Fabrication and condensation characteristics of metallic superhydrophobic surface with hierarchical micro-nano structures

[Display omitted] •Acid-salt mixed solutions are prepared to process metal surfaces.•Hierarchical structures are constructed using two simultaneous chemical reactions.•Al-based and Cu-based superhydrophobic surfaces are fabricated.•Condensation characteristics on the two superhydrophobic surfaces are discussed. Metallic superhydrophobic surfaces have various applications in aerospace, refrigeration and other engineering fields due to their excellent water repellent characteristics. This study considers a simple but widely applicable fabrication method using a two simultaneous chemical reactions method to prepare the acid-salt mixed solutions to process the metal surfaces with surface deposition and surface etching to construct hierarchical micro-nano structures on the surface and then modify the surface with low surface-energy materials. Al-based and Cu-based superhydrophobic surfaces were fabricated using this method. The Al-based superhydrophobic surface had a water contact angle of 164° with hierarchical micro-nano structures similar to the lotus leaves. The Cu-based surface had a water contact angle of 157° with moss-like hierarchical micro-nano structures. Droplet condensation experiments were also performed on these two superhydrophobic surfaces to investigate their condensation characteristics. The results show that the Al-based superhydrophobic surface has lower droplet density, higher droplet jumping probability, slower droplet growth rate and lower surface coverage due to the more structured hierarchical structures.