Investigation of the change in wettability properties and corrosion behavior of AISI 304 after laser surface texturing

Stainless steel is a widely used material in industry, architecture, and medical instruments. However, after various thermal processing of stainless steels, chromium carbides can be formed, which locally depletes the chromium available to form a passive film and reduces the corrosion performance. Laser surface treatment can change the surface chemistry of the steel and improve some electrochemical characteristics. However, these characteristics are influenced by the laser power, pulse width, distance between the lines, scanning speed, etc., which all change the surface chemistry and characteristics of laser surface texturing. Simultaneously, the ability to repel liquids that cause corrosion actions could combine to enhance corrosion performance. Since the wettability of a solid surface depends both on its topography and chemical nature, the micro structuring of an austenitic steel surface is an effective way of fabricating hydrophobic or super hydrophobic corrosion-resistant surfaces. For this reason, this study discusses the effect of laser power in the impact zone and the distance between raster lines on the microstructure, wettability, and corrosion resistance of austenitic steel (AISI 304) when exposed to nanosecond fiber laser radiation. The results indicate that parameter-controlled micro structuring can be used to form both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces with different electrochemical performances.