Super-Hydrophobic Co–Ni Coating with High Abrasion Resistance Prepared by Electrodeposition

Although super-hydrophobic surfaces have great application prospects in industry, their preparation cost and mechanical durability have limited their practical utilization. In this work, we presented a new low-cost process preparation for super-hydrophobic Co–Ni coating on carbon steel substrate via an electrodeposition route. The deposited Co–Ni coating with cauliflower-shaped micro-nano structures exhibited high super-hydrophobic properties with water contact angles over 161° after modification with 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane (PFTEOS). Evaluated by the linear abrasion methods, the super-hydrophobic coating can maintain super-hydrophobicity after abrasion distance of 12 m under the applied pressure of 5 kPa, which was attributed to the high cobalt content of the Co–Ni coating. Moreover, electrochemical tests showed that the super-hydrophobic Co–Ni coatings exhibited a good anti-corrosion performance thus providing an adequate protection to the carbon steel substrates.