Feasibility Assessment of Hydrophobic Surface Creation via Digital Light Processing: Influence of Texture Geometry, Composition, and Resin Type

This study explores the fabrication of hydrophobic surfaces on polymer components via Digital Light Processing (DLP), with emphases on how texture geometry, feature dimensions, and resin type influence surface wettability. Square and cylindrical microtextures were fabricated and evaluated using static contact angle measurements. Square-shaped structures demonstrated enhanced hydrophobicity, with contact angles reaching 133.6°, compared to approximately 100° for cylindrical counterparts of identical dimensions. Increasing pillar height to 521 µm enhanced hydrophobicity by approximately 15%, while decreasing pillar spacing to 150 µm increased contact angles from 86.8° to 106°, highlighting the role of microstructure density. For square-shaped structures, the addition of a hydrophobic agent at 3 wt.% resulted in a contact angle of 123.4°, representing a 44% improvement over the untreated sample. These findings underscore the combined influence of resin chemistry, surface texture design, and dimensional parameters on wettability behavior. Although superhydrophobicity (contact angle > 150°) was not achieved, the study demonstrates notable advancements in optimizing hydrophobicity through DLP printing. Overall, the results support DLP as a scalable and cost-effective approach for engineering functional surfaces suited to self-cleaning, biomedical, and anti-fouling applications.