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Soft Matter

Where physics meets chemistry meets biology for fundamental soft matter research.



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Paper

Soft Matter, 2009, 5, 1011 - 1018, DOI: 10.1039/b814145b

Mechanically switchable wetting on wrinkled elastomers with dual-scale roughness

Pei-Chun Lin and Shu Yang

We report the fabrication of a new superhydrophobic surface with dual-scale roughness by coating silica nanoparticles on a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomer bilayer film with micro-scaled ripples. The wetting behavior of the surface can be reversibly tuned by applying a mechanical strain, which induces the change in micro-scale roughness determined by the ripples. The dual-scale roughness promotes the wetting transition of the final dual-structure surface from Wenzel region into the Cassie region, thus, reducing the sliding angle at least three times in comparison to that from the surfaces with single-scale roughness (either from the nanoparticle film or the wrinkled PDMS film). In addition, three-times and fast-response tunability of the sliding angle by applying mechanical strain on this dual-roughness surface is demonstrated.

Graphical abstract image for this article (ID: b814145b)