title: Spreading behavior of water droplets on fractal agar gel surfaces.
abstract: Agar gels with hierarchical rough surfaces, referred to as "fractal agar gels," were prepared to model biological surfaces coated with mucus. Agar gels with rough surfaces of fractal dimension D = 2.2 were synthesized by transferring a fractal surface structure of alkylketene dimer (AKD). The rough structure accelerated the spreading of water droplets and induced the appearance of a wicking front. The mechanism of acceleration of the spreading on fractal surfaces based on a semiquantitative theoretical model was also clarified.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamagata University, 4-3-16 Jonan, Yonezawa 992-8510, Japan. nonoy@yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yoshimune
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nonomura
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: Takako
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hikima
authors.forename: Eri
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seino
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chida
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mayama
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar / Q000737:chemistry*; D019281:Dimerization; D005030:Ethylenes / Q000737:chemistry; D017709:Fractals; D005782:Gels; D007659:Ketones / Q000737:chemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D013499:Surface Properties; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D017155:Wettability
chemical_list: D005030:Ethylenes; D005782:Gels; D007659:Ketones; D014867:Water; D000362:Agar; C008223:ketene