Method of forming composite, ordered material having sharp surface features
AssigneeUT-Battelle, LLC
InventorsBrian R D'Urso, John T Simpson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of making a composite material having sharp surface features includes the steps of: making a composite body comprised of a recessive phase and a protrusive phase, the recessive phase having a higher susceptibility to a preselected etchant than the protrusive phase; and treating a surface of the composite body with the preselected etchant so that the protrusive phase protrudes from the surface to form a sharp surface feature, and the recessive phase defines a recessed surface area between the surface features.
Claims24
A method of making a super-hydrophobic composite material having sharp surface features comprising the steps of:
- making a fused composite body, said making step comprising:
- forming a bundle comprising a plurality of rods, said bundle comprised of a recessive phase and a protrusive phase, said recessive phase having a higher susceptibility to a preselected etchant than said protrusive phase,
- heating and drawing said bundle to reduce a diameter of said bundle,
- cutting said bundle transversely into sections,
- re-bundling a plurality of sections to form a composite body, and
- fusing the composite body;
- treating a cut surface of said fused composite body with said preselected etchant, wherein said etchant simultaneously etches the recessive and protrusive phases, for a sufficient time so that said protrusive phase protrudes from said fused composite body to form a plurality of sharp surface features having a conical shape, and said recessive phase defines a recessed surface area between said surface features;
- cutting the fused composite body in a transverse direction to form a plate;
- and
- coating said plurality of sharp surface features with a hydrophobic material,
- wherein a cross sectional area of a tip portion of said coated sharp features is less than 30% of a cross sectional area of a base portion of said sharp features.
A method comprising
- making a composite body comprising a plurality of rods,
- wherein some of the rods comprise a recessive phase and a protrusive phase,
- wherein the recessive phase has a higher susceptibility to an etchant than the protrusive phase,
- wherein one or more groups of rods are surrounded by one or more groups of fugitive rods;
- cutting the composite body in a transverse direction to form a plate;
- and treating a surface of the plate with the etchant so that:
- the protrusive phase protrudes from the surface to form a plurality of sharp surface features,
- the recessive phase defines a recessed surface area between the surface features, and
- the fugitive rods completely dissolve in the etchant, thereby releasing the one or more groups of rods as one or more tiles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.