Liquids shape up nicely

Decorating a surface with a forest of microposts can either make it repel water or cause it to be sucked into the spaces between posts. In the latter case, the shape of a liquid on the surface can be controlled using simple design principles

Surface free energy and microarray deposition technology

Microarray techniques use a combinatorial approach to assess complex biochemical interactions. The fundamental goal is simultaneous, large-scale experimentation analogous to the automation achieved in the semiconductor industry. However, microarray deposition inherently involves liquids contacting solid substrates. Liquid droplet shapes are determined by surface and interfacial tension forces, and flows during drying. This article looks at how surface free energy and wetting considerations may influence the accuracy and reliability of spotted microarray experiments

Water-repellent soil and its relationship to granularity, surface roughness and hydrophobicity: a materials science view

Considerable soil water repellency has been observed at a wide range of locations worldwide. The soil exhibiting water repellency is found within the upper part of the soil profile. The reduced rate of water infiltration into these soils leads to severe runoff erosion, and reduction of plant growth. Soil water repellency is promoted by drying of soil, and can be induced by fire or intense heating of soil containing hydrophobic organic matter. Recent studies outside soil science have shown how enhancement of the natural water repellency of materials, both porous and granular, by surface texture (i.e. surface roughness, pattern and morphology) into super-hydrophobicity is possible. The similarities between these super-hydrophobic materials and observed properties of water-repellent soil are discussed from a non-soil scientist, materials-based perspective. A simple model is developed for a hydrophobic granular surface and it is shown that this can provide a mechanism for enhancement of soil water repellency through the relative size and spacing of grains and pores. The model provides a possible explanation for why soil water repellency should be more prevalent under dry conditions than wet. Consequences for water runoff, raindrop splash and soil erosion are discussed

Dynamic wetting and spreading and the role of topography

Hoffman-de Gennes law, which relates the edge speed, ve, to the dynamic and equilibrium contact angles q and qe by ve µq(q2 -qe 2 ). When the liquid wets the surface completely and the equilibrium contact angle vanishes, the edge speed is proportional to the cube of the dynamic contact angle. When the droplets are non-volatile this law gives rise to simple power laws with time for the contact angle and other parameters in both the capillary and gravity dominated regimes. On a textured surface the equilibrium state of a droplet is strongly modified due to the amplification of the surface chemistry induced tendencies by the topography. The most common example is the conversion of hydrophobicity into superhydrophobicity. However, when the surface chemistry favors partial wetting, topography can result in a droplet spreading completely. A further, frequently over-looked consequence of topography is that the rate at which an out-of-equilibrium droplet spreads should also be modified. In this report, we review ideas related to the idea of topography induced wetting and consider how this may relate to dynamic wetting and the rate of droplet spreading. We consider the effect of the Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter equations on the driving forces and discuss how these may modify power-laws for spreading. We relate the ideas to both the hydrodynamic viscous dissipation model and the molecular-kinetic theory of spreading. This suggests roughness and solid surface fraction modified Hoffman-de Gennes laws relating the edge speed to the dynamic and equilibrium contact angle

Super-hydrophobic and super-wetting surfaces: analytical potential?

Roughening or texturing surfaces provides super-liquid repellent or film forming properties without alteration of the surface chemistry. These surfaces are easy to produce, can amplify wetting properties and can be either "sticky" or "slippy" to liquids. Their use as water-repellent coatings is established, but their potential for use in microfluidics and sensor applications remains largely unfulfilled. This article explains several key ideas and suggests why there may be potential for analytical applications

Quantitative NMR monitoring of liquid ingress into repellent heterogeneous layered fabrics

Fabrics which are water repellent and repellent to other liquids are often constructed using multiple layers of material. Such a construction is preferable to a single layer of a liquid-repellent textile because, under the action of an applied pressure, ingress of a liquid through the first layer can be halted by the second or subsequent layers. In the quantitative investigation of this problem, current techniques provide limited information on the progress and distribution of the liquid as it ingresses into a fabric. Moreover, many techniques require that the material is delaminated prior to analysis, and cannot be conducted in real time to measure the progress of a liquid through the textile substrate. In this work we demonstrate that unilateral NMR, which allows signal to be collected from a volume of interest in a material residing above the instrument, can be a powerful tool to quantitatively monitor the ingress of a liquid through a layered sample exhibiting pronounced heterogeneities in repellency. A known volume of oil was placed on the top of a model textile sample composed of three 80 μm thick layers. Spatially resolved one dimensional vertical NMR profiles of the system were acquired as a function of the pressure vertically applied to the top of the sample. These profiles show that the absolute liquid volume present in each layer of textile can routinely be measured within 4 min with a spatial resolution of 15 μm. If each individual layer exhibits different repellency to the test liquid, the complexity of the dynamics of the ingress can be investigated in great detail. An elegant application of the unilateral instrument was obtained in which the sensitive volume matched the region of interest of the individual layers of the textile under investigation

Superhydrophobicity: Localized Parameters And Gradient Surfaces

The use of Cassie and Baxter's equation and that of Wenzel has been subject to some criticism of late. It has been suggested that researchers use these equations without always considering the assumptions that have been made and sometimes apply them to cases that are not suitable. This debate has prompted a reconsideration of the derivation of these equations using the concept of parameters for the Wenzel roughness and Cassie-Baxter solid surface fractions that are local to the three-phase contact lines. In such circumstances, we show the roughness and Cassie-Baxter solid fractions depend not only on the substrate material, but also on which part of the substrate is being sampled by the three-phase contact lines of a given droplet. We show that this is not simply a theoretical debate, but is one which has direct consequences for experiments on surfaces where the roughness or spatial pattern varies across the surface. We use the approach to derive formulae for the contact angle observed on a double length scale surface under the assumption that the small-scale features on the peaks of larger scale features are either wetted or non-wetted. We also discuss the case of curved and re-entrant surface features and how these bring the Young's law contact angle into the formula for roughness and the condition for suspending droplets without penetration into the surface. To illustrate the use of local parameters, we consider the case of a variation in Cassie-Baxter fraction across a surface possessing a homogeneous hydrophobic surface chemistry and discuss the conditions (droplet volume, surface hydrophobicity, gradient in superhydrophobicity and contact angle hysteresis) under which a droplet may be set into motion. We show that different contact angles on each side of a droplet of water placed on such a surface can generate sufficient lateral force for the droplet to move towards the region of the surface with the lowest contact angle. Using an electrodeposited copper surface with a radial gradient in superhydrophobicity we exemplify these ideas by showing experimentally that droplets enter into self-actuated motion and accumulate in the centre of the surface where the wettability is higher. In principle, paths can be defined and water droplets can be collected by creating such gradients in superhydrophobicity through changes in the lateral topography of the surface

Capillary origami: superhydrophobic ribbon surfaces and liquid marbles

In the wetting of a solid by a liquid it is often assumed that the substrate is rigid. However, for an elastic substrate the rigidity depends on the cube of its thickness and so reduces rapidly as the substrate becomes thinner as it approaches becoming a thin sheet. In such circumstances, it has been shown that the capillary forces caused by a contacting droplet of a liquid can shape the solid rather than the solid shaping the liquid. A substrate can be bent and folded as a (pinned) droplet evaporates or even instantaneously and spontaneously wrapped on contact with a droplet. When this effect is used to create three dimensional shapes from initially flat sheets, the effect is called capillary origami or droplet wrapping. In this work, we consider how the conditions for the spontaneous, capillary induced, folding of a thin ribbon substrate might be altered by a rigid surface structure that, for a rigid substrate, would be expected to create Cassie–Baxter and Wenzel effects. For smooth thin substrates, droplet wrapping can occur for all liquids, including those for which the Young’s law contact angle (defined by the interfacial tensions) is greater than 90° and which would therefore normally be considered relatively hydrophobic. However, consideration of the balance between bending and interfacial energies suggests that the tendency for droplet wrapping can be suppressed for some liquids by providing the flexible solid surface with a rigid topographic structure. In general, it is known that when a liquid interacts with such a structure it can either fully penetrate the structure (the Wenzel case) or it can bridge between the asperities of the structure (the Cassie–Baxter case). In this report, we show theoretically that droplet wrapping should occur with both types of solid–liquid contact. We also derive a condition for the transition between the Cassie–Baxter and Wenzel type droplet wrapping and relate it to the same transition condition known to apply to superhydrophobic surfaces. The results are given for both droplets being wrapped by thin ribbons and for solid grains encapsulating droplets to form liquid marble

A sublimation heat engine

Heat engines are based on the physical realization of a thermodynamic cycle, most famously the liquid–vapour Rankine cycle used for steam engines. Here we present a sublimation heat engine, which can convert temperature differences into mechanical work via the Leidenfrost effect. Through controlled experiments, quantified by a hydrodynamic model, we show that levitating dry-ice blocks rotate on hot turbine-like surfaces at a rate controlled by the turbine geometry, temperature difference and solid material properties. The rotational motion of the dry-ice loads is converted into electric power by coupling to a magnetic coil system. We extend our concept to liquid loads, generalizing the realization of the new engine to both sublimation and the instantaneous vapourization of liquids. Our results support the feasibility of low-friction in situ energy harvesting from both liquids and ices. Our concept is potentially relevant in challenging situations such as deep drilling, outer space exploration or micro-mechanical manipulation

Dielectrowetting Driven Spreading of Droplets

The wetting of solid surfaces can be modified by altering the surface free energy balance between the solid, liquid, and vapor phases. Here we show that liquid dielectrophoresis induced by nonuniform electric fields can be used to enhance and control the wetting of dielectric liquids. In the limit of thick droplets, we show theoretically that the cosine of the contact angle follows a simple voltage squared relationship analogous to that found for electrowetting on dielectric. Experimental observations confirm this predicted dielectrowetting behavior and show that the induced wetting is reversible. Our findings provide a noncontact electrical actuation process for meniscus and droplet control