超疏水表面上冷凝液滴发生弹跳的机制与条件分析

使用液滴合并前后的体积和表面自由能守恒作为两个限制条件,确定了合并液滴的初始形状,即为偏离平衡态的亚稳态液滴,具有缩小其底半径而向平衡态液滴转变的推动力.进而分析了液滴变形过程中的推动力和三相线(TPCL)上的滞后阻力,建立了液滴变形的动态方程并进行了差分求解.如果液滴能够变形至底半径为0mm的状态,则根据该状态下液滴重心上移的速度确定液滴的弹跳高度.不同表面上冷凝液滴合并后的变形行为的计算结果表明,光滑表面上的液滴合并后,液滴只能发生有限的变形,一般都在达到平衡态之前就停止了变形,因此冷凝液滴不会发生弹跳;粗糙表面上的Wenzel态液滴的三相线上的滞后阻力更大,因而液滴更难以变形和弹跳;具有微纳二级结构表面上只润湿微米结构,但不润湿纳米结构的部分Wenzel态液滴能够变形至Cassie态,但没有明显的弹跳;只有在纳米或微纳二级结构表面上的较小Cassie态液滴合并后,液滴易于变形至底半径为0mm的状态并发生弹跳.因此,Cassie态合并液滴处于亚稳态,并且其三相线上的移动阻力很小,是导致冷凝液滴弹跳的关键因素.     

纳米结构表面上冷凝液滴的生长模式及部分润湿液滴的形成机制

分析并计算了纳米结构表面上冷凝液滴按照不同途径长大的过程中液滴能量的增加速率, 并以能量增加最小为判据来确定液滴的生长途径. 结果表明, 纳米结构内形成的冷凝液斑在初期按接触角(CA)增加的模式生长时, 其能量增加速率远低于其它模式, 于是, 初始液斑先按增大接触角、并保持底面积不变的模式生长, 直至液滴达到前进角状态. 此后, 沿接触角增加的模式长大所导致的能量增加速率开始远高于其它生长模式, 于是液滴三相线开始移动, 底面积开始增加, 但接触角保持不变. 液滴所增加的底面积可以呈润湿或复合两种状态, 分别形成Wenzel 液滴及部分润湿液滴, 前者的表观接触角一般小于160°, 而后者则明显大于160°. 液滴的生长模式及其润湿状态均与纳米结构参数密切相关, 仅当纳米柱具有一定高度、且间距较小时, 冷凝液滴才能呈现部分润湿状态. 最后, 本模型对纳米结构表面上冷凝液滴润湿状态的计算结果与绝大部分实测结果相一致, 准确率达到91.9%, 明显高于已有公式的计算准确率.     

形状记忆聚合物表面微结构及黏附性能的可逆调控

采用模板法在形状记忆聚合物表面构筑了微纳米等级结构,获得了一种具有低黏附性的超疏水表面.在外压作用下,表面微结构发生坍塌,失去超疏水性,同时呈高黏附性.在120℃热处理后,表面微结构恢复到原始状态,同时表面恢复到低黏附状态.通过外压及热处理过程可实现对表面微结构及其黏附性能的可逆调控.研究结果表明,表面不同的微结构状态赋予了表面不同的黏附性能,即在原始表面上,液滴处于低黏附的Cassie态,而在坍塌结构表面上水滴处于高黏附的Wenzel态.     

超疏水性表面在冷凝条件下的润湿特性

采用测量接触角和观测偏光显微镜对超疏水表面在冷凝条件下的疏水特性进行了研究, 发现冷凝蒸汽进入超疏水表面的微凸起内冷凝, 表面的疏水特性被破坏, 表面的润湿特性变得不均匀, 部分区域甚至呈现亲水状态. 根据实验结果提出了冷凝条件下粗糙表面表观接触角的计算模型, 并使用冷凝条件下表面接触角的测量结果进行了验证.     

仿生超疏水表面的抗冷凝失效研究进展

在存在一定过冷度或蒸汽过饱和度的条件下,水蒸汽可在固体表面凝结成核.随着过冷度增大,液滴成核半径将随之减小,冷凝液滴的生长融合将无法避免地发生在超疏水表面不可或缺的微/纳米结构内.若液滴不能及时排出,则会滞留在表面结构内并挤出空气,形成局部浸润,导致材料表面的超疏水性能下降或失效,甚至引起泛洪.本文首先总结了表面因冷凝...     

注压成型仿生纳米结构聚丙烯表面的冷凝微水滴动态行为

选择2种锥形纳米孔结构参数不同的阳极氧化铝（AAO）作为模板,利用注射压缩成型（ICM）技术将AAO模板中的纳米孔结构复制到聚丙烯（PP）表面上,在复制的PP表面上形成了致密且规则排列的锥形纳米柱阵列结构.该结构是一种仿生蝉翼纳米结构.在纳米柱结构的润湿状态能量比和顶部直径与中心间距之比（分别约为0.46和0.26）均明显较小的PP复制物表面,冷凝微水滴呈明亮的球状;在没有外力作用下,冷凝微水滴可通过频繁地合并、跳跃从该表面上移除,表面不断更新,即该表面具有明显的冷凝微水滴自移除（CMDSR）功能,使表面上覆盖的冷凝微水滴维持明显较低的量,而且冷凝微水滴维持较小的直径（不超过40 μm）.该CMDSR功能是在未经低表面能修饰的情况下获得的.研究结果表明,利用ICM技术可快速、批量制备具有CMDSR功能的超疏水高分子材料.     

超疏水性材料表面的制备、应用和相关理论研究的新进展

文章总结了Wenzel方程、Cassie方程及一种具有极高精确度的,可方便测出固体表面上液滴前进角和后退角的测试方法等超疏水表面的最新理论研究成果;回顾了溶胶凝胶法、化学修饰法、喷涂法、液相法、化学蚀刻法、水热法、微相分离法、原位聚合法、静电纺丝法、阳极氧化法等近几年出现的超疏水表面的制备方法;介绍了在微物质能量、生物医学、光学、燃料以及电池应用等领域超疏水表面的最新功能性的应用。最后,客观地展望了超疏水表面制备及理论研究的发展方向。     

非离子表面活性剂Triton X-100溶液在不同生长期小麦叶片表面的润湿行为

选择不同生长期小麦叶片,利用座滴法研究了非离子表面活性剂Triton X-100在小麦叶片表面接触角,考察浓度对接触角、粘附张力、固-液界面张力及润湿状态的影响。研究表明,在低浓度下,表面活性剂分子在气-液界面吸附量(ΓLV)和固-液界面吸附量(Γ'SL)相似,但吸附量较少形成了不饱和吸附层,接触角保持不变,其润湿状态为Cassie-Baxter状态;当浓度进一步增加,液滴突破叶片表面三维立体结构中存在的钉扎效应,取代空气层而处于Wenzel状态,接触角陡降,同时Γ'SL/ΓLV远大于1;当浓度超过临界胶束浓度(CMC)时,表面活性剂分子在气-液界面和固-液界面形成饱和吸附层,并产生毛细管效应,使溶液在小麦叶片三维立体结构中产生半渗透过程,此时接触角保持不变。     

以砂纸为模板制作聚合物超疏水表面

报道了一种聚合物材料超疏水表面的简便制备方法. 以不同型号的金相砂纸为模板, 通过浇注成型或热压成型技术, 在聚合物表面形成不同粗糙度的结构. 接触角实验结果证明, 聚合物表面与水的接触角随着所用砂纸模板粗糙度的增加而加大, 其中粒度号为W7和W5砂纸制作的表面与水的接触角可超过150°, 显示出超疏水性质. 多种聚合物使用砂纸为模均可制备不同粗糙度及超疏水的表面, 本征接触角对复制表面浸润性的影响从Wenzel态到Cassie态而变小. 扫描电镜结果表明, 不规则形状的砂纸磨料颗粒构成了超疏水所需要的微纳米结构的模板.     

羊毛表面改性对拒水拒油整理的作用及机理研究

应用扫描电镜(SEM)、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)和衰减全反射红外光谱(FTIR-ATR)等现代表面分析技术研究不同改性处理羊毛表面的化学和物理结构特性.SEM研究结果表明,经低温等离子体表面改性或特定化学改性后的羊毛鳞片表面呈现纳米尺度的沟槽和凹凸结构,应用Wenzel公式和Cassie and Baxter公式阐述了表面粗糙度与接触角的关系,揭示了羊毛表面改性对于提高拒水拒油整理效果的原因所在.XPS和FTIR-ATR研究表明,上述物理和化学的表面改性技术使羊毛表面的二硫键氧化断裂和表面类脂物质改性/除去,促进拒水拒油整理剂的吸附和固着.表面改性和拒水拒油整理的协同效应赋予羊毛类荷叶效应,使其呈现超级拒水拒油拒污功能.     

Condensation and wetting transitions on microstructured ultra-hydrophobic surfaces

On rough surfaces, two distinct wetting modes can appear. These two states are usually described by the theories of Cassie (drops suspended on top of roughness features) and Wenzel (drops impaled on roughness features). Whereas the wetting transition from the Cassie to the Wenzel state has been relatively well studied both experimentally and theoretically, the question of whether metastable Wenzel drops exist and how they transition to the Cassie state has remained open. In this work, we study the wetting behavior of microstructured post surfaces coated with a hydrophobic fluoropolymer. Through condensation, the formation of metastable Wenzel droplets is induced. We show that under certain conditions drops can transition from the Wenzel to the Cassie state.     

How to make the Cassie wetting state stable?

Wetting of rough hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces is discussed. The stability of the Cassie state, with air trapped in relief details under the droplet, is necessary for the design of true superhydrophobic surfaces. The potential barrier separating the Cassie state and the Wenzel state, for which the substrate is completely wetted, is calculated for both hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. When the surface is hydrophobic, the multiscaled roughness of pillars constituting the surface increases the potential barrier separating the Cassie and Wenzel states. When water fills the hydrophilic pore, the energy gain due to the wetting of the pore hydrophilic wall is overcompensated by the energy increase because of the growth of the high-energetic liquid-air interface. The potential barrier separating the Cassie and Wenzel states is calculated for various topographies of surfaces. Structural features of reliefs favoring enhanced hydrophobicity are elucidated.     

Contact angle hysteresis on regular pillar-like hydrophobic surfaces

A series of pillar-like patterned silicon wafers with different pillar sizes and spacing are fabricated by photolithography and further modified by a self-assembled fluorosilanated monolayer. The dynamic contact angles of water on these surfaces are carefully measured and found to be consistent with the theoretical predictions of the Cassie model and the Wenzel model. When a water drop is at the Wenzel state, its contact angle hysteresis increases along with an increase in the surface roughness. While the surface roughness is further raised beyond its transition roughness (from the Wenzel state to the Cassie state), the contact angle hysteresis (or receding contact angle) discontinuously drops (or jumps) to a lower (or higher) value. When a water drop is at the Cassie state, its contact angle hysteresis strongly depends on the solid fraction and has nothing to do with the surface roughness. Even for a superhydrophobic surface, the contact angle hysteresis may still exhibit a value as high as 41 degrees for the solid fraction of 0.563.     

Water wetting transition parameters of perfluorinated substrates with periodically distributed flat-top microscale obstacles

Superhydrophobicity is obtained on photolithographically structured silicon surfaces consisting of flat-top pillars after a perfluorosilanization treatment. Systematic static contact angle measurements were carried out on these surfaces as a function of pillar parameters that geometrically determine the surface roughness, including pillar height, diameter, top perimeter, overall filling factor, and disposition. In line with thermodynamics models, two regimes of static contact angles are observed varying each parameter independently: the "Cassie" regime, in which the water drop sits suspended on top of the pillars (referred to as composite), corresponding to experimental contact angles greater than 140-150 degrees, and the "Wenzel" regime, in which water completely wets the asperities (referred to as wetted), corresponding to lower experimental contact angles. A transition between the Cassie and Wenzel regimes corresponds to a set of well-defined parameters. By smoothly depositing water drops on the surfaces, this transition is observed for surface parameter values far from the calculated ones for the thermodynamic transition, therefore offering evidence for the existence of metastable composite states. For all studied parameters, the position of the experimental transition correlates well with a rough estimation of the energy barrier to be overcome from a composite metastable state in order to reach the thermodynamically favored Wenzel state. This energy barrier is estimated as the surface energy variation between the Cassie state and the hypothetical composite state with complete filling of the surface asperities by water, keeping the contact angle constant.     

Rationalization of the behavior of solid-liquid surface free energy of water in Cassie and Wenzel wetting states on rugged solid surfaces at the nanometer scale

The present work aims to contribute to the understanding at a molecular level of the origin of the hydrophobic nature of surfaces exhibiting roughness at the nanometer scale. Graphite-based smooth and model surfaces whose roughness dimension stretches from a few angstroms to a few nanometers were used in order to generate Cassie and Wenzel wetting states of water. The corresponding solid-liquid surface free energies were computed by means of molecular dynamics simulations. The solid-liquid surface free energy of water-smooth graphite was found to be -12.7 ± 3.3 mJ/m(2), which is in reasonable agreement with a value estimated from experiments and fully consistent with the features of the employed model. All the rugged surfaces yielded higher surface free energy. In both Cassie and Wenzel states, the maximum variation of the surface free energy with respect to the smooth surface was observed to represent up to 50% of the water model surface tension. The solid-liquid surface free energy of Cassie states could be well predicted from the Cassie-Baxter equation where the surface free energies replace contact angles. The origin of the hydrophobic nature of surfaces yielding Cassie states was therefore found to be the reduction of the number of interactions between water and the solid surface where atomic defects were implemented. Wenzel's theory was found to fail to predict even qualitatively the variation of the solid-liquid surface free energy with respect to the roughness pattern. While graphite was found to be slightly hydrophilic, Wenzel states were found to be dominated by an unfavorable effect that overcame the favorable enthalpic effect induced by the implementation of roughness. From the quantitative point of view, the solid-liquid surface free energy of Wenzel states was found to vary linearly with the roughness contour length.     

Condensation-induced wetting state and contact angle hysteresis on superhydrophobic lotus leaves

In this paper, we demonstrate how condensed moisture droplets wet classical superhydrophobic lotus leaf surfaces and analyze the mechanism that causes the increase of contact angle hysteresis. Superhydrophobic lotus leaves in nature show amazing self-cleaning property with high water contact angle (>150°) and low contact angle hysteresis (usually <10°), causing droplets to roll off at low inclination angles, in accordance with classical Cassie–Baxter wetting state. However, when superhydrophobic lotus leaves are wetted with condensation, the condensed water droplets are sticky and exhibit higher contact angle hysteresis (40–50°). Compared with a fully wetted sessile droplet (classical Wenzel state) on the lotus leaves, the condensed water droplet still has relatively large contact angle (>145°), suggesting that the wetting state deviates from a fully wetted Wenzel state. When the condensed water droplets are subjected to evaporation at room conditions, a thin water film is observed bridging over the micropillar structures of the lotus leaves. This causes the dew to stick to the surface. This result suggests that the condensed moisture does not uniformly wet the superhydrophobic lotus leaf surfaces. Instead, there occurs a mixed wetting state, between classical Cassie–Baxter and Wenzel states that causes a distinct increase of contact angle hysteresis. It is also observed that the mixed Cassie–Baxter/Wenzel state can be restored to the original Cassie–Baxter state by applying ultrasonic vibration which supplies energy to overcome the energy barrier for the wetting transition. In contrast, when the surface is fully wetted (classical Wenzel state), such restoration is not observed with ultrasonic vibration. The results reveal that although the superhydrophobic lotus leaves are susceptible to being wetted by condensing moisture, the configured wetting state is intermediate between the classical Cassie–Baxter and Wenzel states.     

Transition between superhydrophobic states on rough surfaces

Surface roughness is known to amplify hydrophobicity. It is observed that, in general, two drop shapes are possible on a given rough surface. These two cases correspond to the Wenzel (liquid wets the grooves of the rough surface) and Cassie (the drop sits on top of the peaks of the rough surface) formulas. Depending on the geometric parameters of the substrate, one of these two cases has lower energy. It is not guaranteed, though, that a drop will always exist in the lower energy state; rather, the state in which a drop will settle depends typically on how the drop is formed. In this paper, we investigate the transition of a drop from one state to another. In particular, we are interested in the transition of a "Cassie drop" to a "Wenzel drop", since it has implications on the design of superhydrophobic rough surfaces. We propose a methodology, based on energy balance, to determine whether a transition from the Cassie to Wenzel case is possible.     

Characterization of rough surfaces with vibrated drops

Wetting transitions were studied with vertically-vibrated drops on various artificial and natural rough substrates. Alternative pathways of wetting transitions were observed. The model of wetting transition is presented. Multiple minima of the Gibbs free energy of a drop deposited on a rough surface explain alternative pathways of wetting transitions. We demonstrate that a wetting transition occurs when the constant force resulting from vibrations, Laplace and hydrostatic pressure acts on the triple line. It is shown that the final wetting states are mainly the Cassie impregnating wetting state with water penetrating the pores in the outer vicinity of the droplet or the Wenzel state with water inside the pores under the droplet whereas the substrate ahead the drop is dry.     

Pressure induced transition between superhydrophobic states: configuration diagrams and effect of surface feature size

The stability of wetting states, namely the Cassie state (partial wetting) and the Wenzel state (complete wetting) of surfaces with protrusions, is determined by comparing the total free energy of a liquid drop in terms of their apparent contact angles for different protrusion features. It is found that when the area fraction of the topographical features and the intrinsic contact angle for a flat surface are large, the Cassie state is favored, but it can be either the metastable or stable state. It is shown that the transition from the Cassie state to the Wenzel state requires the application of a pressure to the meniscus between the surface protrusions. The critical transition pressure increases not only with increasing area fraction and intrinsic contact angle, but also with decreasing protrusion size. During the transition, a high-pressure gas can be trapped around the protrusions that can cause the Cassie state to be recovered after the release of the applied pressure. The analysis shows that a droplet can 'hang' upside-down when the protrusion size is very small; namely, the protrusions can pin the meniscus. These results are discussed relative to the advancing and receding contact angle.