A reed leaf-like superhydrophobic stainless surface is obtained by nanosecond laser direct writing. Through investigating the coupling interaction between the laser fluence and the overlapping rate, we fabricate biomimetic reed leaf-like structures on the stainless steel. This biomimetic structures reveal excellent superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 157 ± 1° and a sliding angle of 1 ± 0.5° after FAS-17 (1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriisopropoxysilane) modification. The superhydrophobicity of the as-prepared surface results from its biomimetic hierarchical micro-nanostructure and the grafted low-surface-energy fluorosilane. The superhydrophobic surface exhibits high microhardness and excellent mechanical abrasion resistance. It can maintain superhydrophobicity after sandpaper abrasion against 260 grit Al₂O₃ sandpaper for 2.5 m at the applied pressure of 12.5 kPa. Moreover, the superhydrophobic surface has good chemical stability in both acidic and alkaline environments. The Tafel polarization curves show that the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface has better corrosion resistance than the bare stainless steel surface. It is believed that this stainless superhydrophobic surface may have important significance in the practical application.

In this article, the basalt fibers were used to fill the UHMWPE because of their outstanding mechanical and tribological performances. The UHMWPE composites with the filler content of 5—20 wt.% were prepared. Then, the mechanical and tribological performances of the composites were tested. Also, the wear mechanism was analyzed. The results indicated that the UHMWPE composites’ impact toughness was decreased when filled with the basalt fibers, but the strength, hardness, and anti-indentation creep of the UHMWPE composites were improved. Under the same experimental conditions, the friction coefficient of the UHMWPE composites filled with basalt fibers was decreased to some extent, and the wear loss of the composites was significantly reduced. The analysis showed that the wear type of the UHMWPE composites was changed when filled with the basalt fibers. So, the wear-resistant performance of the UHMWPE composites was effectively enhanced.

Superhydrophobic coatings with high strength and corrosion resistance on hard metal surfaces have been attracting significant attention in recent years. In this paper, a quick and easy method using Fe-based micro/nano composite electro-brush plating and subsequent modification with stearic acid was established for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces on A3 steel plates. The processing parameters including the working voltage, the brushing speed and the micro-TiO₂ particle concentration were studied to determine their influences on the wettability. A blackening process was conducted to further improve the corrosion resistance of the Fe-based plating layer with high water repellency. The surface morphology and chemical composition were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Corrosion resistance ability was measured using an electrochemical workstation. The results suggested that: the rough structure of the superhydrophobic coatings can be successfully fabricated by electro-brush plating technology with appropriate parameters; after post-treatment by stearic acid, the contact angle of the composite coating was up to 156° and the sliding angle was even as low as 1° under the optimal process. Meanwhile blackening treated superhydrophobic coatings still maintained excellent superhydrophobicity and the self-corrosion potential improved by 0.116 V compared to the untreated brush plating layer and the prepared superhydrophobic coatings achieved an excellent long term anti-corrosion performance.