Nanosecond Laser Fabrication of Hydrophobic Stainless Steel Surfaces: The Impact on Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance

Creation of hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces has attracted broad attention as a promising solution for protection of metal surfaces from corrosive environments. This work investigates the capability of nanosecond fiber laser surface texturing followed by a low energy coating in the fabrication of hydrophobic 17-4 PH stainless steel surfaces as an alternative to the ultrashort lasers previously utilized for hydrophobic surfaces production. Laser texturing of the surface followed by applying the hydrophobic coating resulted in steady-state contact angles of up to 145°, while the non-textured coated base metal exhibited the contact angle of 121°. The microstructure and compositional analysis results confirmed that the laser texturing process neither affects the microstructure of the base metal nor causes elemental loss from the melted regions during the ultrafast melting process. However, the electrochemical measurements demonstrated that the water-repelling property of the surface did not contribute to the anticorrosion capability of the substrate. The resultant higher corrosion current density, lower corrosion potential, and higher corrosion rate of the laser textured surfaces were ascribed to the size of fabricated surface micro-grooves, which cannot retain the entrapped air inside the hierarchical structure when fully immersed in a corrosive medium, thus degrading the material's corrosion performance.