Superhydrophobic modified electrodeposited copper surface for fog harvesting

The superhydrophobic copper surfaces were fabricated by electrodeposition of copper followed by surface modification with stearic acid (SA). The electrodeposition of copper for 90 s at a voltage of 1.2 V, was identified as the optimum condition via contact angle measurement and used for further investigation. In the next step, the study explored the influence of the solution concentrations and the duration of the modification process. A 0.01 molar SA solution rendered the surface superhydrophobic after 24 h, while 0.1 and 0.25 molar solutions of SA achieved this in 10 min, with the latter exhibiting a larger contact angle(158 ± 2°), and a sliding angle of 3.5°. Fog harvesting experiments demonstrated nucleation, growth, and droplet merging on a superhydrophobic surface. The efficiency of the superhydrophobic surface was calculated to be 4.6 g/cm². h which is approximately 50% larger than polished surface.