In nature, many species commonly evolve specific functional surfaces to withstand harsh external environments. In particular, structured wettability of surfaces has attracted tremendous interest due to its great potential in antifogging and anti-icing properties. Phyllostachys Viridis is a resistant low-temperature (-18 °C) plant with superhydrophobicity and ice resistivity behaviors. In this work, with inspiration from the representative cold-tolerant plants leaves, a unique multilevel micronano (MLMN) surface was fabricated on copper substrate by ultrafast laser process, which exhibited superior superhydrophobic characteristics with the water contact angle > 165° and rolling angle< 2°. In the dynamic wettability experiment, the rebound efficiency of the droplet on the MLMN surface reached 20.6%, and the contact time was only 10.6 ms. In the condensation experiment, the nucleation, growth, merging, and bouncing of fog drops on the surface was distinctly observed, indicating that rational texture structures can improve the antifogging performance of the surface. In the anti-icing experiment, the freezing time was delayed to 921 s at -10 °C, and the freezing time of salt water reached a staggering 1214 s. Moreover, the mechanical durability of MLMN surfaces was confirmed by scratch damage, sandpaper abrasion, and icing and melting cycle tests, and their repairability was evaluated for product applications in practice. Finally, the underlying antifogging/anti-icing strategy of the MLMN surface was also revealed. We anticipate that the investigations offer a promising way to handily design and fabricate multiscale hierarchical structures with reliable antifogging and anti-icing performance, especially in saltwater-related applications.
Keywords: anti-icing; antifogging; nanosecond laser; phyllostachys viridis; superhydrophobicity.