Mapping micrometer-scale wetting properties of superhydrophobic surfaces

There is a huge interest in developing superrepellent surfaces for antifouling and heat-transfer applications. To characterize the wetting properties of such surfaces, the most common approach is to place a millimetric-sized droplet and measure its contact angles. The adhesion and friction forces ca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2019-12, Vol.116 (50), p.25008-25012
Main Authors: Daniel, Dan, Lay, Chee Leng, Sng, Anqi, Lee, Coryl Jing Jun, Neo, Darren Chi Jin, Ling, Xing Yi, Tomczak, Nikodem
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adhesion
Adhesion tests
Antifouling substances
Atomic force microscopes
Atomic force microscopy
Contact angle
Droplets
Friction
Hydrophobic surfaces
Hydrophobicity
Mapping
Microscopes
Physical Sciences
Properties (attributes)
Wetting
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Summary:There is a huge interest in developing superrepellent surfaces for antifouling and heat-transfer applications. To characterize the wetting properties of such surfaces, the most common approach is to place a millimetric-sized droplet and measure its contact angles. The adhesion and friction forces can then be inferred indirectly using Furmidge’s relation. While easy to implement, contact angle measurements are semiquantitative and cannot resolve wetting variations on a surface. Here, we attach a micrometric-sized droplet to an atomic force microscope cantilever to directly measure adhesion and friction forces with nanonewton force resolutions. We spatially map the micrometer-scale wetting properties of superhydrophobic surfaces and observe the time-resolved pinning–depinning dynamics as the droplet detaches from or moves across the surface.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1916772116