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American Chemical Society, Langmuir, 6(27), p. 2595-2600, 2011

DOI: 10.1021/la104669k

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Water Droplet Motion Control on Superhydrophobic Surfaces: Exploiting the Wenzel-to-Cassie Transition

Journal article published in 2011 by Guangming Liu, Lan Fu, Andrei V. Rode, Vincent S. J. Craig ORCID
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

Water droplets on rough hydrophobic surfaces are known to exist in two states; one in which the droplet is impaled on the surface asperities (Wenzel state) and the other, a superhydrophobic state in which air remains trapped beneath the droplet (Cassie state). Here, we demonstrate that water droplets can transit from the Wenzel-to-Cassie state even though the former is energetically favored. We find that two distinct superhydrophobic states are produced. One is a true Cassie state, whereas the other exhibits superhydrophobicity in the absence of a vapor phase being trapped in the surface roughness. Furthermore, we can selectively drive the motion of water droplets on tilted structured hydrophobic surfaces by exploiting Wenzel-to-Cassie transitions. This can be achieved by heating the substrate or by directly heating the droplet using a laser.