Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.453, 142-150, 2015
Anisotropic wetting properties on various shape of parallel grooved microstructure
It has been revealed experimentally that some superhydrophobic surfaces in nature, such as rice leaf, show strong anisotropic wetting behavior. In this work, based on a thermodynamic approach, the effects of profile shape of parallel grooved microstructure on free energy (FE) with its barrier (FEB) and equilibrium contact angle (ECA) with its hysteresis (CAH) for various orientations of different parallel micro texture surface have been systematically investigated in detail. The results indicated that the anisotropy of wetting properties strongly depended on the specific topographical features and wetting state. In particular, a paraboloidal profile of parallel micro-texture surface is used as an important example to theoretically establish the relationship between surface geometry and anisotropic wetting behavior for optimal design, showing that the wetting behavior of the composite state is similar to that of the non-composite state and the anisotropy will possibly be appeared with the decrease of height or intrinsic contact angle of paraboloidal profile of micro texture. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.