title: Recent advances in the mechanical durability of superhydrophobic materials.
abstract: Large majority of superhydrophobic surfaces have very limited mechanical wear robustness and long-term durability. This problem has restricted their utilization in commercial or industrial applications and resulted in extensive research efforts on improving resistance against various types of wear damage. In this review, advances and developments since 2011 in this field will be covered. As such, we summarize progress on fabrication, design and understanding of mechanically durable superhydrophobic surfaces. This includes an overview of recently published diagnostic techniques for probing and demonstrating tribo-mechanical durability against wear and abrasion as well as other effects such as solid/liquid spray or jet impact and underwater resistance. The review is organized in terms of various types of mechanical wear ranging from substrate adhesion, tangential surface abrasion, and dynamic impact to ultrasonic processing underwater. In each of these categories, we highlight the most successful approaches to produce robust surfaces that can maintain their non-wetting state after the wear or abrasive action. Finally, various recommendations for improvement of mechanical wear durability and its quantitative evaluation are discussed along with potential future directions towards more systematic testing methods which will also be acceptable for industry.
authors.affiliation: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, 122 Engineer's Way, Charlottesville, VA 22904, United States. Electronic address: am2vy@virginia.edu.
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Milionis
authors.affiliation: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, 122 Engineer's Way, Charlottesville, VA 22904, United States. Electronic address: loth@virginia.edu.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Loth
authors.affiliation: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, 122 Engineer's Way, Charlottesville, VA 22904, United States; Smart Materials/Nanophysics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30, Genoa 16163, Italy. Electronic address: ilker.bayer@iit.it.
authors.forename: Ilker S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Bayer
keywords: Abrasion; Durable superhydrophobicity; Superhydrophobic; Surface wetting; Textured surfaces; Wear