Strain-controlled switching of hierarchically wrinkled surfaces between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity

Recent years have witnessed intense interest in multifunctional surfaces that can be designed to switch between different functional states with various external stimuli including electric field, light, pH value, and mechanical strain. The present paper is aimed to explore whether and how a surface can be designed to switch between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity by an applied strain. Based on well-established theories of structure buckling and solid-liquid contact, we show that this objective may be achieved through a hierarchically wrinkled surface. We derive general recursive relations for the apparent contact angle at different levels of the hierarchical surface and investigate the thermodynamic stability of different contact states. Our study may provide useful guidelines for the development of multifunctional surfaces for many technological applications.