Influence of surface roughness on superhydrophobicity.
Superhydrophobic surfaces, with a liquid contact angle theta greater than 150 degrees , have important practical applications ranging from self-cleaning window glasses, paints, and fabrics to low-friction surfaces. Many biological surfaces, such as the lotus leaf, have a hierarchically structured surface roughness which is optimized for superhydrophobicity through natural selection. Here we present a molecular dynamics study of liquid droplets in contact with self-affine fractal surfaces. Our results indicate that the contact angle for nanodroplets depends strongly on the root-mean-square surface roughness amplitude but is nearly independent of the fractal dimension D(f) of the surface.
Yang
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C
IFF, FZ-Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
Tartaglino
U
U
Persson
B N J
BN