Display omitted •Superhydrophobic copper surfaces by a one-step electrochemical modification process in an ethanolic stearic acid solution.•Analysis of the corrosion properties of as-received, hydrophobic and superhydrophobic copper surfaces.•The corrosion resistance of the superhydrophobic surface is found to be 1220kΩcm2 as compared to as-received bare copper surface 1kΩcm2. Superhydrophobic copper surfaces have been prepared by a one-step electrochemical modification process in an ethanolic stearic acid solution. In this work, the corrosion properties of hydrophobic copper surface and superhydrophobic copper surfaces were analyzed by means of electrochemical analyses and compared with that of as-received bare copper substrate. The decrease of corrosion current density (icorr) as well as the increase of polarization resistance (Rp) obtained from potentiodynamic polarization curves revealed that the superhydrophobic film on the copper surfaces improved the corrosion resistance performance of the copper substrate.