Abstract: An oxidation technology, glow-discharge electrolysis plasma, has been successfully used to graft stearic acid onto iron-substrate for the fabrication of superhydrophobic iron-surface. To optimize the fabrication conditions, several important parameters such as the discharge voltage, the discharge time, the concentrations of supporting electrolyte and stearic acid ethanol solution were examined systematically. The wettability, structure and resultant composition of iron substrate were characterized by contact goniometer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) and SEM. Under the optimized conditions, the contact angle(CA) for the modified iron-substrate surfaces is up to 154° and the sliding angle(SA) is less than 5°.

Key words: glow discharge electrolysis plasma, iron substrate, superhydrophobic surface, stearic acid