Superhydrophobic Al Surfaces with Properties of Anticorrosion and Reparability

[Image: see text] Aluminum (Al) is one of the most widely used metals for industry and household applications, but its longevity is limited by its tendency for corrosion. In this work, we report a facile method to fabricate superhydrophobic Al surfaces that have excellent anti-corrosion effect. The surface is obtained by etching Al in CuCl(2) solution to form the micro–nano-pit surface texture followed by lowering its surface energy in an aqueous ethanol solution of stearic acid. The superhydrophobic Al surfaces show water contact angles as high as 165°. Electrochemical tests demonstrate that the corrosion rate of the Al surface drops by 94.5% after the superhydrophobic modification (corrosion current density lowers from 1.11 × 10(–4) to 6.10 × 10(–6) A cm(–2)). We also show that the superhydrophobic surface will protect the Al from corrosion even under a very harsh environment. In addition, our method is scalable and the superhydrophobic surfaces exhibit excellent flexible and reparable properties. This anti-corrosive superhydrophobic Al surface will prolong Al in its broad usage.