Nanotechnology to Improve the Performances of Hydrodynamic Surfaces

The nature continues to inspire scientists to adapt solutions in order to satisfy the human needs and attain unreachable performances with new technologies. In this study, the super-hydrophobicity of the Lotus leaf is our source of inspiration. The duplication of this natural phenomenon may enhance the maritime metallic surfaces corrosion and its mechanical friction. In our case, we are investigating super-hydrophobic maritime surfaces using a simple, low cost and scalable coating method. A hydrothermal method is used to create zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) and an evaporation method to apply the Octadecyltrimethoxysilane (ODS). At the end, the super-hydrophobic surface (SHS) is obtained on a maritime aluminum substrate coated by a commercial epoxy paint. The characterization of our SHS gives high water contact angle (WCA) and small sliding angle (SA) of water droplets on the treated surface. We have raised the WCA of the epoxy painted aluminum surface from 98° to more than 152° and reduce the SA of 46° to lower than 7°. We have also studied the sliding speed (SS) that have been largely raised from 0.04 m s⁻¹ in the epoxy case to 1.3 m s⁻¹ after treatment.