Creation of superwetting surfaces with roughness structures.
In this work, we explored the possibility of creating superwetting surfaces, which are defined here as those with apparent contact angles of <5°, using roughness structures for the purpose of eliminating the surface tension effect on a floating small plate, which is denser than the surrounding liquid. The roughness ratio is often thought to play a critical role in generating superwetting surfaces. However, we found that the top surface ratio had more influence on apparent contact angles. When this ratio was <0.013, the resulting apparent contact angle might be less than 5°, when the intrinsic contact angle was ≥40°. Accordingly, hybrid micro- and nanostructures, which had such a small ratio, were chosen to create the superwetting surfaces. These surfaces were subsequently applied to eliminate the surface tension effect on a small plate. As a result of this elimination, the small plate sank down to the bottom of the liquid.
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington , 500 West First Street, Woolf Hall 226, Arlington, Texas 76019, United States.
Varun
V
Garg
Lei
L
Qiao
Prasha
P
Sarwate
Cheng
C
Luo