Comment on “Nanosecond laser textured superhydrophobic metallic surfaces and their chemical sensing applications” by Duong V. Ta, Andrew Dunn, Thomas J. Wasley, Robert W. Kay, Jonathan Stringer, Patrick J. Smith, Colm Connaughton, Jonathan D. Shephard (Appl. Surf. Sci. 357 (2015) 248–254)

Abstract Nowadays the problem of design of durable ecologically friendly superhydrophobic surfaces is of great importance for science and technology. A recent paper in Applied Surface Science reports the method of fabricating the superhydrophobic metallic surfaces by infrared nanosecond laser surface texturing without using hydrophobic agents. Since this method of surface texturing can be considered as one of the most suitable for various industrial applications, the nature of superhydrophobic state of surfaces produced by laser texturing in the abovementioned paper deserves to be analyzed in detail. Authors of the commented paper attributed the change in wettability to the partial deoxidation of CuO into Cu2O on the surface during storage in atmosphere. However, such interpretation of the results contradicts to the basic notions in the theory of wetting and to more accurate and detailed data. In our Comment we discuss these contradictions point by point.