Airborne hydrocarbon induced multifunctional coating towards bouncing characteristics, icing delaying, hot-water repellency, and anti-corrosion on copper

Some studies have confirmed copper coating can realize superhydrophobicity after exposure to air. However, the comprehensive characteristics of the special wettable coating such as surface energy, bouncing behavior, hot water repellency, icing delaying, and corrosion resistance are still not well understood. Here, without further chemical processing, an electrodeposition technique creates a superhydrophobic layer on a copper substrate. The wettability versus different exposure routes is investigated. As a result, the slow oxidation of Cu and adsorption of airborne hydrocarbon contribute to a low rolling angle and enhanced water droplet bouncing ability. The coating displays strong 95 °C hot water repellency, icing delaying (∼78s), and great anti-corrosion ability, which also has a high protection efficiency (98.84%) and an improved coating resistance of 2.198×105 Ω·cm2. The multifunctional properties are attributed to the airborne hydrocarbon and the constructed hierarchical structure. This preparation process avoids complex chemical modification and it can provide a new strategy for designing multifunctional coating for surface protection on metals.