Parametric investigation of ultrashort pulsed laser surface texturing on aluminium alloy 7075 for hydrophobicity enhancement

Hydrophobicity plays a pivotal role in mitigating surface fouling, corrosion, and icing in critical marine and aerospace environments. By employing ultrafast laser texturing, the characteristic properties of a material’s surface can be modified. This work investigates the potential of an advanced ultrafast laser texturing manufacturing process to enhance the hydrophobicity of aluminium alloy 7075. The surface properties were characterized using goniometry, 3D profilometry, SEM, and XPS analysis. The findings from this study show that the laser process parameters play a crucial role in the manufacturing of the required surface structures. Numerical optimization with response surface optimization was conducted to maximize the contact angle on these surfaces. The maximum water contact angle achieved was 142º, with an average height roughness (Sa) of 0.87 ± 0.075 µm, maximum height roughness (Sz) of 19.4 ± 2.12 µm, and texture aspect ratio of 0.042. This sample was manufactured with the process parameters of 3W laser power, 0.08 mm hatch distance, and a 3 mm/s scan speed. This study highlights the importance of laser process parameters in the manufacturing of the required surface structures and presents a parametric modeling approach that can be used to optimize the laser process parameters to obtain a specific surface morphology and hydrophobicity.