Abstract

Hardened steel is an important material related to the development of modern industry branches. In order to satisfy the adhesion strength as well as the corrosion and wear resistance under extreme conditions, the modification of the wettability of hardened steel has become an important scientific topic. As micro/nano-structured surfaces play an essential role to induce advanced functional surfaces with wettability control, this contribution aims at presenting the feasibility of micro/nano sculpturing of hardened steels by elliptical vibration diamond cutting. The influence of the fabricated micro/nano structures on the resulting wettability is discussed and related to the contact line density as well as asperity heights. In this regard, it has been verified that a pitch value of 12 mu m and structural height of 500 nm are the preferred structural parameters to increase the hydrophobicity of the textured steel specimens.