Switchable bubble wettability copper mesh for underwater gas collection ablated by spatial modulated femtosecond laser

Abstract With the development of energy exploitation and drug researching, people pay more attention on underwater gas collection. Switchable bubble wettability surfaces play an important role in these areas. In this paper, a fast, flexible and efficient switchable bubble wettability copper surface processing method is reported. It is using spatial light modulated femtosecond laser sputtering and ablation, and its processing efficiency has increased several times. The laser treated copper mesh surfaces not only show reversible switching ability between underwater (super-)aerophilicity and superaerophobicity, but also can be cycled many time. Therefore, the as-prepared surface can control bubbles to pass through or block by switching wetting property. Finally, we demonstrated the underwater superaerophobic characteristic of the as-prepared copper mesh was used for gas collection and the gas intrusion pressure of the prepared copper mesh was studied theoretically and experimentally.