Free-decay and resonant methods for investigating the fundamental limit of superhydrophobicity

Jaakko V. I. Timonen (), Mika Latikka, Olli Ikkala and Robin H. A. Ras ()
Additional contact information
Jaakko V. I. Timonen: Aalto University (formerly Helsinki University of Technology)
Mika Latikka: Aalto University (formerly Helsinki University of Technology)
Olli Ikkala: Aalto University (formerly Helsinki University of Technology)
Robin H. A. Ras: Aalto University (formerly Helsinki University of Technology)

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The recently demonstrated extremely water-repellent surfaces with contact angles close to 180° with nearly zero hysteresis approach the fundamental limit of non-wetting. The measurement of the small but non-zero energy dissipation of a droplet moving on such a surface is not feasible with the contemporary methods, although it would be needed for optimized technological applications related to dirt repellency, microfluidics and functional surfaces. Here we show that magnetically controlled freely decaying and resonant oscillations of water droplets doped with superparamagnetic nanoparticles allow quantification of the energy dissipation as a function of normal force. Two dissipative forces are identified at a precision of ~ 10 nN, one related to contact angle hysteresis near the three-phase contact line and the other to viscous dissipation near the droplet–solid interface. The method is adaptable to common optical goniometers and facilitates systematic and quantitative investigations of dynamical superhydrophobicity, defects and inhomogeneities on extremely superhydrophobic surfaces.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3398 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3398

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3398

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().