Method of coating a metallic article with a surface of tailored wettability

Abstract

A method of coating a metallic article having an at least part-metallic surface comprising a first metal, with a surface having a pre-determined wettability, the method at least comprising the steps of: (a) coating at least a part of the metallic article with a layer of a second metal to provide a metal-metal bonded surface, said surface being rough either prior to or because of step (a); and (b) contacting the metal-metal bonded surface of step (a) with a material to provide the surface having the pre-determined wettability. The first metal may be one or more of the group comprising: iron, zinc, copper, tin, nickel and aluminium, and alloys thereof including steel, brass, bronze and nitinol for example. Preferably, the second metal is coated onto the first metal using electroless Galvanic deposition. The nature of the coated metallic article is non-limiting, as the ability of the present invention is to provide a tailored surface with a pre-determined wettability thereon, including superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic wettability. This allows the invention to be capable of application to a wide range of metal types used in different fields.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.