A facile approach for artificial biomimetic surfaces with both superhydrophobicity and iridescence

Biomimetic surfaces are attracting more and more research attention because of the amazing characteristics of living biological species, such as iridescence in flowers of hibiscus trionum and tulipa, and superhydrophobicity on the lotus leaf. Despite numerous efforts for producing the fascinating micro-nanostructures that present either iridescence or superhydrophobicity, there is almost no reports on artificial surfaces that posses both simultaneously apart from a few examples on self-organized colloidal particles. Here, we report bio-inspired charming photonic surface structures consisting of regular micro-needle arrays covered with nano-metal protrusions, which are prepared by multibeam interference patterning plus electroless plating. The multibeam laser approach features rapidness, simplicity and ease of large-area fabrication, for example fabrication of a uniform area of 600 mm² took less than 1 min. The attained hierarchical artificial surface layers exhibit not only superhydrophobic ability, but also brilliant iridescence, which may be useful as a novel type of decoration layer for buildings, cars, and even clothes.