Air Bubble Bursting Effect of Lotus Leaf

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surfaces, especially lotus leaf surface, have been largely explored due to their great importance in fundamental research and abundant potential applications. However, many efforts have been focused on investigating the superhydrophobic surfaces in air instead of in water environment, which are rather crucial to industrial separation progress. A novel air bubble bursting effect on lotus leaf surface was firstly discovered and the underlying mechanism was believed to be related to the micro/nano-hierarchical rough structures. Inspired by air bubble bursting effect on lotus leaf, a superhydrophobic “artificial lotus leaf” with similar micro/nano-hierarchical rough structures was successfully constructed by photolithography and wet etching and also achieved air bubble bursting effect. Smooth and rough silicon surface with the ordered nano-structure or patterned micro-structure were utilized to study the contribution of the micro/nano-hierarchical structures to air bubble bursting, and it was found that air bubble could burst on the superhydrophobic surfaces with micro-structure, but more time was required, while nano-structure could accelerate air bubble bursting. Moreover, the height, width, and spacing of hierarchical structures also affected air bubble bursting, and the effect of the height was more obvious. When the height of hierarchical structures was around the height of lotus papillae, the width and spacing were significant for air bubble bursting. Eventually, an original model was proposed to further evaluate the reason that the micro/nano-hierarchical rough structures had an excellent air bubble bursting effect, and its validity was theoretically demonstrated. It was believed that these findings should spark further theoretical study of some bubble-related interfacial phenomena and find its wide applications in the industrial separation process without any accessional energy and other additives, such as mineral flotation, food processing, textile dyeing, and fermentation.