Theoretical consideration and experimental investigation of existence of energy barrier in wetting of multi-pillar surface

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Various surfaces can be seen in nature such as plants, insects and living matter. These surfaces are usually covered by hairs and flakes of organic compounds. Among them, lotus effect observed on lotus leave is well-known as a typical example of surface functions. Lotus leaves repel water completely and its surface is cleaned by rolling of water droplets (self-cleaning). On the other hand, one can find super-water-repellency on such surfaces in early stage, but, these show wettability by perturbation and passage of time. This physically means that the existence of an energy barrier between dewettable and wettable states. In this study, we have theoretically and experimentally studied wetting phenomena of multi-pillar surfaces as model surface of plants, insects and living matter to study the energy barrier.