Transition of super-hydrophobic states of droplet on rough surface

Abstract

Twelve samples with periodic array square pillars microstructure were prepared on the silicon wafer by plasma etching techniques, on which space b of the square pillars increased from 5 to 60 μm. In order to study the effect of b on the wettability of the rough surface, the effects of apparent contact angle (CA) and sliding angle (α) of the droplet on the rough surface were measured with the contact angle meter. The results show that the experimental values of CA well agree with the classical wetting theory and α decreases with the increase of b. Two drop shapes exist on the samples’ surface, corresponding to the Cassie state and the Wenzel state respectively. The contact state in which a drop would settle depends typically on the size of b. On the role of gravitation, the irreversible transition of a drop from Cassie state to Wenzel state should occur at a certain space of the square pillars. Since the transition has implications on the application of super-hydrophobic rough surfaces, theoretically, the prediction of wetting state transition on square pillar array micro-structured surfaces provides an intuitionistic guidance for the design of steady super-hydrophobic surfaces.