Micro-surface Texturing of Ti6Al4V Alloy for Improved Hydrophobicity: Integrating Experimental and Mathematical Approaches

This study investigates inducing hydrophobicity on Ti6Al4V titanium alloy through micro-surface texturing using high-speed micromachining. The objective of the present study is to improve the surface features of Ti6Al4V alloy which is employed in the aerospace and biomedical industries by mimicking the super hydrophobicity of natural surfaces with the lotus effect. Micro-texturing is used to create micro-surface topographies that regulate contact angles and interactions energies. In fact, due to the high surface energy and therefore hydrophilicity of Ti6Al4V, the surface needs to be modified for particular applications. High-speed micromachining is employed to fabricate micro-groove and pillar patterns on Ti6Al4V plates with higher efficiency and lesser cost. Characterization of the surface is done by SEM and wettability measurements through water contact angle (WCA), whereby microstructured surface shows contact angle of well over 125° illustrating a transition of the surface from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. Further, MATLAB model has also been created to predict the WCA in relation to surface geometry and tension, by comparing it with experimental findings, the error percentage was found to be within 4 % only.