Patent ID: 8241508

Claim:
A method of making a super-hydrophobic composite material having sharp surface features comprising the steps of: making a fused composite body, said making step comprising: forming a bundle comprising a plurality of rods, said bundle comprised of a recessive phase and a protrusive phase, said recessive phase having a higher susceptibility to a preselected etchant than said protrusive phase, heating and drawing said bundle to reduce a diameter of said bundle, cutting said bundle transversely into sections, re-bundling a plurality of sections to form a composite body, and fusing the composite body; treating a cut surface of said fused composite body with said preselected etchant, wherein said etchant simultaneously etches the recessive and protrusive phases, for a sufficient time so that said protrusive phase protrudes from said fused composite body to form a plurality of sharp surface features having a conical shape, and said recessive phase defines a recessed surface area between said surface features; cutting the fused composite body in a transverse direction to form a plate; and coating said plurality of sharp surface features with a hydrophobic material, wherein a cross sectional area of a tip portion of said coated sharp features is less than 30% of a cross sectional area of a base portion of said sharp features.