Search

Superhydrophobicity is evolutionarily adaptive to surrounding environment. Lotus flower is naturally occurring superhydrophobicity. Artificial self-cleaning materials function effectively on superhydrophobic surfaces so that water droplets bead up and roll off the surface taking the contamination particles away. Inspired by lotus flower, we have fabricated superhydrophobic Mg alloy surfaces using manganese dioxide (MnO2) microspheres encased in stearic acid shells. The prepared superhydrophobic Mg alloy surface provides exceptional self-cleaning ability in air and oil, and remains non-wetting even after dynamic water shear, or exposure to strong acid, strong base, and saline solutions as well as organic solvents showing excellent mechanochemical durability, with broad application prospect.

Metals and their alloys are irreplaceable engineered materials showing great importance in our society. Light alloy materials (i.e., Mg, Al, Ti, and their alloys) have tremendous application potential in the aerospace, automotive industries, and biomedical fields for they are lighter and have excellent mechanical properties. The corrosion of light alloys is ubiquitous and greatly restricts their utilization. Inspired by the natural anti-water systems, many new designs and conceptions have recently emerged to create artificial superhydrophobic surfaces with great potential for corrosion resistant of light alloy. This review firstly introduces the concept of superhydrophobicity and strategies of producing superhydrophobic surfaces to inhibit the corrosion of light alloys. In addition, we elaborate the durability of superhydrophobic light alloy materials for commercial and industrial applications, and present their anticorrosion mechanism in the corrosive media.