Picosecond Laser Surface Texturing of a Stavax Steel Substrate for Wettability Control

In this investigation,a picosecond laser was employed to fabricate surface textures on a Stavax steel substrate,which is a key material for mold fabrication in the manufacturing of various polymer products.Three main types of surface textures were fabricated on a Stavax steel substrate:periodic ripples,a two-scale hierarchical two-dimensional array of micro-bumps,and a micro-pits array with nanoripples.The wettability of the laser-textured Stavax steel surface was converted from its original hydrophilicity into hydrophobicity and even super-hydrophobicity after exposure to air.The results clearly show that this super-hydrophobicity is mainly due to the surface textures.The ultrafast laserinduced catalytic effect may play a secondary role in modifying the surface chemistry so as to lower the surface energy.The laser-induced surface textures on the metal mold substrates were then replicated onto polypropylene substrates via the polymer injection molding process.The surface wettability of the molded polypropylene was found to be changed from the original hydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity.This developed process holds the potential to improve the performance of fabricated plastic products in terms of wettability control and easy cleaning.

Additive manufacturing of composite materials and functionally graded structures using selective heat melting technique

The feasibility of using selective heat melting(SHM) to fabricate composite materials and functionally graded structures was investigated.We report,for the first time,the successful 3 D printing of copper(Cu)-polyethylene(PE) composite,iron(Fe)-polyethylene(PE) composite and functionally graded CuO foams using the SHM technique.It was found that a low feed rate,high airflow rate and high airflow temperature were required for efficient delivery of heat from the emitted hot air to the powder bed,so that the PE binder particles can melt and form dense composites with smooth surfaces.The best mechanical properties were exhibited by composites with 80 vol.% PE,as lower PE concentrations led to deficient binding of the metal particles,while higher PE concentrations meant that very few metal particles were available to strengthen the composite.The strength exhibited by Cu-PE composites was comparable to engineering plastics such as polycarbonate,with the added advantage of being electrically conductive.The average conductivity of the samples,0.152±0.28 S/m,was on par with physically crosslinked graphene assemblies.By subjecting a Cu-PE composite,with Cu concentration graded from 10 vol.% to 30 vol.%,to a high temperature debinding and sintering treatment in air,CuO foam with graded porosity can be obtained.This CuO foam was observed to fail in a layer-by-layer manner under mechanical compression,which is a characteristic of functionally graded materials.Our study shows that,compared to existing 3 D printing techniques,SHM can be cheaper,have wider material compatibility,occupy a smaller footprint and potentially induce less residual stresses in the fabricated parts.Therefore,it could be a valuable complement to current additive manufacturing techniques for fabricating mechanically strong composite materials and functionally graded structures.