Superhydrophobicity from microstructured surface

Surface wettability, as one of the most essentialproperties of solid surface, is a very common interfacephenomenon in our daily life and nature. It takes place ina variety of activities of all creatures in nature, and alsoplays a key role in our daily life and industrial and agri-cultural applications. Surface wettability can be measuredby contact angle (CA). Basically, surface with a CA ofwater lower than 90° can be called a hydrophilic surface,while the CA of a hydrophobic surface is grea…

Superhydrophobicity from microstructured surface

Superhydrophobicity is referred to the wet- tability of a solid surface which has a water apparent contact angle greater than 150 . It has attracted great interest in both fundamental researches and practical applications. This pa- per discusses two models: Wenzel model and Cassie model, to describe the superhydrophobic states of surface. The ef- fects of surface morphology and microstructure on superhy- drophobicity are discussed, and the internal relationship between Wenzel and Cassie states is presented. These two superhydrophobic states can coexist and they present differ- ent properties on contact angle hysteresis. It is reported that the irreversible transition can be realized from Cassie state to Wenzel state under some certain conditions. This paper also gives a review of recent progresses in the strategies of fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces by designing micro- structured or microtextured surfaces. Finally, the funda- mental research and applications of superhydrophobic sur- faces are prospected.