Fabrication of stable Ir-ZnO/Zn superhydrophobic surface on zinc substrate for its properties and application

Abstract A textured ice edge-like Ir-ZnO/Zn superhydrophobic surface (SHS) with a water contact angle of 169° and a sliding angle of less than 1° was fabricated on zinc substrates via immersing the processed zinc sheet perpendicularly into iridium (III) chloride aqueous solution and annealing treatment. The morphology and chemical composition of the resulted SHS were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS). The Ir-ZnO/Zn SHS exhibited properties of lasting stability, excellent self-cleaning ability, superior corrosion resistance, super buoyancy force as well as catalyzer. The super buoyancy force of the resulted sample is 6.14 times that of zinc sheet. The Ir-ZnO/Zn SHS exhibited good catalytic activity with a full degradation of methyl orange within 80 min under an ultraviolet (UV) lamp with a light intensity of 8 W. Moreover, the Ir-ZnO/Zn SHS exhibited a good stability up to 3 recycles without a significant loss of its catalytic activity.