Plasma-driven tunable liquid adhesion of superoleophobic aluminum surfaces

With the aim of tuning adhesion with various liquids, we develop a convenient route to achieve sliding superoleophobicity and sticky superoleophobicity on the aluminum surfaces by surface fluorination and masked plasma treatment. Droplets of various liquids, such as oils, organic liquids, and water, can be tuned between rolling state and pinned state on the superoleophobic surfaces. The tunable adhesion of the superoleophobic surface is demonstrated by visible experimental results and measurements. The key to this effect is the combination of the oleophobic domains produced by masked plasma treatment as well as a permanently superoleophobic substrate and the hierarchical texture. Our results gave a useful attempt in understanding the fabrication principle of preparing superoleophobic surfaces with tunable liquid adhesion. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.