Fabrication of Biomimetic Surface for Hydrophobic and Anti-icing Purposes via the Capillary Force Lithography

In this paper, inspired by lotus leaf surfaces, we fabricated biomimetic multi-scale micro-nano-structures by Two-Step Capillary Force Lithography (TS-CFL) and UV-assisted Capillary Force Lithography (UV-CFL). The experimental results indicated that TS-CFL was unfitted to fabricate large-area multi-scale micro-nano-structures. Conversely, UV-CFL can fabricate large-area multi-scale micro-nano-structures. We discussed the hydrophobic and anti-icing properties of the biomimetic surfaces fabricated by these two technologies. We found that small structures are significant for improving the hydrophobic anti-icing properties of single-structured or structureless surfaces. We believe that these results can complement the experimental details of both technologies and enable the development of more interesting micro-nano-structures biomimetic surfaces by both technologies in the future.