Abstract
Nature continues to inspire scientists to adapt solutions in order to satisfy human needs, mainly in the maritime domain with metallic surface corrosion and its mechanical friction. In this research, the source of innovation comes from the lotus leaf and its well-known super-hydrophobicity. In this study, we have investigated the lotus leaf as a model for a super-hydrophobic maritime surface. The hydrothermal technique, which is considered to be a simple, low-cost, and scalable coating method, is applied to create zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs), and an evaporation method is used to apply octadecyltrimethoxysilane (ODS). We apply such eco-green coatings onto commercial epoxy paints. Superhydrophobic surfaces (SHS) are obtained on maritime aluminum substrates. The characterization of SHS indicates improved behavior of water droplets on the treated surface: higher water static contact angles (WCA) from 98 degrees to more than 152 degrees and reduced sliding angles (SA) from 46 degrees to 7 degrees. Sliding speeds (SS) have been largely raised from 54 in the epoxy case to 1300 mms(-1) after treatment. These results clearly demonstrate the real opportunity to apply ZnO-based nanomaterials onto existing commercial maritime coatings.