Volume 146, 2010
From the journal:

Faraday Discussions

Hierarchical surfaces: an in situ investigation into nano and micro scale wettability

Alex H. F. Wu,a   K. L. Cho,a   Irving I. Liaw,a   Grainne Moran,b   Nigel Kirbyc  and  Robert N. Lamb*a  

* Corresponding authors

a School of Chemistry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

b UNSW Analytical Centre, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

c The Australian Synchrotron, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Two scales of roughness are imparted onto silicon surfaces by isotropically patterning micron sized pillars using photolithography followed by an additional nanoparticle coating. Contact angles of the patterned surfaces were observed to increase with the addition of the nanoparticle coating, several of which, exhibited superhydrophobic characteristics. Freeze fracture atomic force microscopy and in situ synchrotron SAXS were used to investigate the micro- and nano-wettability of these surfaces using aqueous liquids of varying surface tension. The results revealed that scaling different roughness morphologies result in unique wetting characteristics. It indicated that surfaces with micro, nano or dual scale roughness induced channels for the wetting liquid as per capillary action. With the reduction of liquid surface tension, nano-wetting behaviour differed between superhydrophobic and non-superhydrophobic dual-scale roughness surfaces. Micro-wetting behaviour, however, remained consistent. This suggests that micro- and nano-wetting are mutually exclusive, and that the order in which they occur is ultimately governed by the energy expenditure of the entire system.

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B927136H
Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Dec 2009
Accepted
02 Feb 2010
First published
06 May 2010

Faraday Discuss., 2010,146, 223-232

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Hierarchical surfaces: an in situ investigation into nano and micro scale wettability

A. H. F. Wu, K. L. Cho, I. I. Liaw, G. Moran, N. Kirby and R. N. Lamb, Faraday Discuss., 2010, 146, 223 DOI: 10.1039/B927136H

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