Superhydrophobic surface modification for corrosion protection of metals and alloys

Modifying a surface to achieve a superhydrophobic characteristic has increasingly become an attractive approach to protect oxidation of metals and alloys. This review comprehensively discusses the state of the art of superhydrophobic surface modification with a particular focus on the corrosion inhibiting quality. Generally, there are two main approaches to induce superhydrophobicity, namely application of low surface energy coating and roughening of a surface to a binary micro/nano-rough structure. These strategies, which are often combined and found to complement one another, have been successfully demonstrated to provide corrosion-resistant improvement with moderate durability for a number of metals and alloys, including stainless steels, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, copper, and zinc.