Etching and heating treatment combined approach for superhydrophobic surface on brass substrates and the consequent corrosion resistance

•The superhydrophobic surfaces on brass substrates were prepared by etching and heat treatment combination approach.•The achieved superhydrophobic surface has a contact angle as high as 153.6°.•The superhydrophobic surface exhibited excellent and persistent corrosion resistance in 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solution.

Designing micro-nano structure is one of promising method to fabricate hydrophobic surfaces. In this paper, we demonstrated a combining etching and heat treatment approach to achieve a superhydrophobic surface on brass. Following by simple modification using stearic acid, the water contact angle on micro-nano structured brass was 153.6°, along which exhibited good and persistent corrosion resistance in 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solutions. This method could provide an effective route to fabricate superhydrophobic surface with corrosion resistance and self-cleaning properties for applications in the metal alloys materials.