Alexander B Tesler, Stefan Kolle, Lucia H Prado, Ingo Thievessen, David Böhringer, Matilda Backholm, Bhuvaneshwari Karunakaran, Heikki A Nurmi, Mika Latikka, Lena Fischer, Shane Stafslien, Zoran M Cenev, Jaakko V I Timonen, Mark Bruns, Anca Mazare, Ulrich Lohbauer, Sannakaisa Virtanen, Ben Fabry, Patrik Schmuki, Robin H A Ras, Joanna Aizenberg, Wolfgang H Goldmann
Aerophilic surfaces immersed underwater trap films of air known as plastrons. Plastrons have typically been considered impractical for underwater engineering applications due to their metastable performance. Here, we describe aerophilic titanium alloy (Ti) surfaces with extended plastron lifetimes that are conserved for months underwater. Long-term stability is achieved by the formation of highly rough hierarchically structured surfaces via electrochemical anodization combined with a low-surface-energy coating produced by a fluorinated surfactant...
September 18, 2023: Nature Materials