A ducted fan is a potential solution to improve the dynamic performance of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The impeller of the ducted fan is the most critical plastic part. Compared with the injection molding process, the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process has a lower cost and shorter cycle time, but its roughness and lift performance are undesirable. Based on the hydrophobic surface treatment and the related performance research of the ducted fan impeller, this research aimed to improve the anti-impedance properties. Then, the modified surface of the impeller was built based on mussel-inspired mechanisms and the chemical surface-coating process of fan products. Experiments were conducted using a scanning electron microscope with an ener-gy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy system (SEM-EDS), laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), and a UAV dynamic test platform. The experimental results show that the coating resulted in reduced surface roughness for injection molding and FDM molding, and the maximum lift of the impellers manufactured by the injection molding and FDM methods was increased by 3.3% and 12%, respectively. Moreover, the effect on the integrity of this coating process on FDM was significantly better than on the injection molding. The numerical analysis of the aerodynamic performance of the impeller with different roughness reveals the mechanism by which the surface treatment affects the blade effectiveness. The CFD results show that reducing the roughness led to less low-energy fluid in the flow channel and reduced the turbulent pulsation dissipation. In addition, the reduction in the blade’s surface roughness decreased the boundary layer thickness and the boundary layer velocity. Thus, the aerodynamic performance of the impeller was optimized.

Experiments were conducted using a scanning electron microscope with an ener-gy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy system (SEM-EDS), laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), and a UAV dynamic test platform.

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