Wettability modification of laser-fabricated hierarchical surface structures in Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy
| Main Authors: | HUERTA-MURILLO, GARCÍA-GIRÓN, A., ROMANO, J.M., CARDOSO, J.T., CORDOVILLA, F., WALKER, M., DIMOV, S.S., OCAÑA, J.L. |
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| Format: | Article eJournal |
| Terbitan: |
, 2018
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| Online Access: |
https://zenodo.org/record/3520648 |
Daftar Isi:
- A study of laser-based surface structuring of aerospace-grade titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) with subsequent ageing by employing two different storage methods is undertaken. The titanium alloy samples were patterned using UV-ns and IR-fs pulsed lasers in a two-step process to fabricate bio-inspired hierarchical structures. The resulting surface structure consisted in regular periodic square-shaped micro-pillars covered by 810 nm-periodic LIPSS. After the laser processing the samples were kept in two different storage conditions: exposed to ambient air and inside polyethylene bags. The polyethylene bags were found to be beneficial for the surface ageing of laser-fabricated titanium surfaces, increasing the ageing time when compared to ageing by exposure to ambient air. Hierarchical surface topographies exhibited higher water-repellency when compared to non-hierarchical structures. Especially, hierarchical structures reached a hydrophobic state with water contact angle over 160° after 3 weeks storage in polyethylene bags. The micro-structured surfaces were characterized by using confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, static contact angle measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.