Hierarchically Nanostructured Surfaces via Laser Etching

The U.S. Army is need of anti-corrosive surface treatment technologies to be applied onto its current armament inventory. Specifically, the Army is in need of laser treatment technologies that will be able to treat large surfaces as well as difficult geometries in efforts to prevent corrosion and deterioration of its military arsenal and equipment. Current, anti-corrosion technologies are limited to chemical surface treatments which are generally passive treatments but can also be active; however, most of these coatings require maintenance or reapplication as the chemical bond between treatment and surface is not strong. In the proposed Phase I effort, Materials Modification, Inc. (MMI) will show proof of concept of a pulsed-laser technology that will be able to create microstructures on the surfaces to promote anti-corrosive/superhydrophobic properties, highly cost-effective, and imparts anti-reflective properties. The surfaces treated with pulsed-laser technology will be evaluated for anti-corrosive, self-cleaning, and mechanical properties. Phase I Option efforts will build upon the Phase I findings to scale-up the pulsed-laser technology to treat large-scale surfaces and determine processing parameters for specific geometries. Phase II efforts will be focused on developing a portable pulsed-laser technology for use in field applications on military equipment as well as other alloys.