Fabrication of superhydrophobic surface with improved corrosion inhibition on 6061 aluminum alloy substrate

Through a simple and low-cost acid etching and passivation treatment, micro/nano-scale terrace-like hierarchical structures accompanying with nanoscale coral-like network bulge structures are prepared on 6061 aluminum alloy surface. Then, a superhydrophobic surface is attained with self-cleaning behavior after silanization. Moreover, the greatly improved corrosion inhibition of the as-prepared surface compared with two-step processing surface can be characterized by potentiodynamic polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.