High-frequency acoustic for nanostructure wetting characterization

Nanostructure wetting is a key problem when developing superhydrophobic surfaces. Conventional methods do not allow us to draw conclusions about the partial or complete wetting of structures on the nanoscale. Moreover, advanced techniques are not always compatible with an in situ, real time, multiscale (from macro to nanoscale) characterization. A high-frequency (1 GHz) acoustic method is used for the first time to characterize locally partial wetting and the wetting transition between nanostructures according to the surface tension of liquids (the variation is obtained by ethanol concentration modification). We can see that this method is extremely sensitive both to the level of liquid imbibition and to the impalement dynamic. We thus demonstrate the possibility to evaluate the critical surface tension of a liquid for which total wetting occurs according to the aspect ratio of the nanostructures. We also manage to identify intermediate states according to the height of the nanotexturation. Finally, our measurements revealed that the drop impalement depending on the surface tension of the liquid also depends on the aspect ratio of the nanostructures. We do believe that our method may lead to new insights into nanoscale wetting characterization by accessing the dynamic mapping of the liquid imbibition under the droplet.