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Research on Hydrophobic Copper Foil Surfaces Prepared by Laser Ablation Imprinting

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Laser ablation imprinting technology involves using laser ablation to induce shock waves in the plasma, replicating microstructures from a mold surface onto the workpiece to form primary microstructures. Simultaneously, the remelt layer formed by laser ablation creates secondary microstructures on the surface. Further modifications such as fluorination and aging treatments alter the chemical composition of the workpiece surface, reducing surface energy to enhance its hydrophobicity. This study investigates the effects of different numbers of impacts, energy densities, and mold cycles on the surface forming results of aluminum foil. At an energy level of 109.5 J/cm², there was no significant difference in the surface forming effect of copper foil subjected to 3 to 7 impacts. Under conditions of 3 laser pulses, when the laser energy is below29 J/cm², the copper foil workpiece cannot form complete multilevel microstructures. Within the range of 45.2–102.5 J/cm², the formation of multilevel microstructures on the copper foil workpiece improves with increasing energy. However, within the range of 109.5—118.4 J/cm², the workpiece experiences damage. The larger the mold cycle, the better the formation of multilevel microstructures produced by laser ablation imprinting. The effects of aging treatment and fluorination treatment on the workpiece were analyzed from three aspects: wettability, surface chemical composition, and surface morphology. The effects of aging treatment and fluorination treatment on the workpiece were analyzed from three aspects: wettability, surface chemical composition, and surface morphology. The experimental results indicate that under conditions where multilevel microstructures are uniformly formed on the workpiece surface, different variables have insignificant effects on the final contact angle.
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Vol:.(1234567890)
Lasers in Manufacturing and Materials Processing (2025) 12:44–67
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40516-025-00280-1
RESEARCH
Research onHydrophobic Copper Foil Surfaces Prepared
byLaser Ablation Imprinting
PinLi1,2· HaoyuWang1· TianshengLi1· ZhengShi1· ZongbaoShen1
Accepted: 20 January 2025 / Published online: 11 February 2025
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
2025
Abstract
Laser ablation imprinting technology involves using laser ablation to induce shock
waves in the plasma, replicating microstructures from a mold surface onto the work-
piece to form primary microstructures. Simultaneously, the remelt layer formed by
laser ablation creates secondary microstructures on the surface. Further modifica-
tions such as fluorination and aging treatments alter the chemical composition of
the workpiece surface, reducing surface energy to enhance its hydrophobicity. This
study investigates the effects of different numbers of impacts, energy densities, and
mold cycles on the surface forming results of aluminum foil. At an energy level
of 109.5J/cm2, there was no significant difference in the surface forming effect of
copper foil subjected to 3 to 7 impacts. Under conditions of 3 laser pulses, when
the laser energy is below29 J/cm2, the copper foil workpiece cannot form complete
multilevel microstructures. Within the range of 45.2–102.5 J/cm2, the formation
of multilevel microstructures on the copper foil workpiece improves with increas-
ing energy. However, within the range of 109.5—118.4J/cm2, the workpiece expe-
riences damage. The larger the mold cycle, the better the formation of multilevel
microstructures produced by laser ablation imprinting. The effects of aging treat-
ment and fluorination treatment on the workpiece were analyzed from three aspects:
wettability, surface chemical composition, and surface morphology. The effects of
aging treatment and fluorination treatment on the workpiece were analyzed from
three aspects: wettability, surface chemical composition, and surface morphology.
The experimental results indicate that under conditions where multilevel microstruc-
tures are uniformly formed on the workpiece surface, different variables have insig-
nificant effects on the final contact angle.
Keywords Laser ablation imprinting· Multilevel microstructures· Hydrophobicity·
Aging treatment· Fluorination treatment
* Zongbao Shen
szb@ujs.edu.cn
1 School ofMechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang212013, China
2 Shanghai Marine Equipment Research Institute, Shanghai200031, China
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