Mechanisms of metal wettability transition and fabrication of durable superwetting/superhydrophilic metal surfaces

•Adsorption of short-chain organics does not induce obvious wettability transition.•Durable surfaces should allow water’s enter while suppressing organics’ diffusion.•Single-tier nanostructures are challenging to achieve durable superhydrophilicity.•In-situ deposition of ultrafast laser-ablated products forms a composite porous layer.•Greatly enhanced durability can be achieved on the composite structures.