title: Stability of plasma treated superhydrophobic surfaces under different ambient conditions.
abstract: Plasma hydrophilizing of superhydrophobic substrates has become an important area of research, for example, superhydrophobic-(super)hydrophilic patterned surfaces have significant practical applications such as lab-on-chip systems, cell adhesion, and control of liquid transport. However, the stability of plasma-induced hydrophilicity is always considered as a key issue since the wettability tends to revert back to the untreated state (i.e. aging behavior). This paper focuses on the stability of plasma treated superhydrophobic surface under different ambient conditions (e.g. temperature and relative humidity). Water contact angle measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are used to monitor the aging process. Results show that low temperature and low relative humidity are favorable to retard the aging process and that pre-storage at low temperature (-10°C) disables the treated surface to recover superhydrophobicity. When the aging is performed in water, a long-lasting hydropholicity is obtained. As the stability of plasma-induced hydrophilcity over a desired period of time is a very important issue, this work will contribute to the optimization of storage conditions of plasma treated superhydrophobic surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Faze
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Jiyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Jinlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
authors.forename: Wenji
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. Electronic address: xinliu@dlut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D010316:Particle Size; D010949:Plasma / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Aging; Atmospheric pressure; Plasma; Superhydrophilic; Superhydrophobic; Surface modification