Remodeling of Super-hydrophobic Surfaces

An experimental study on the underlying mechanisms of structured super-hydrophobic surfaces was recently published [ Butt, H.-J.; et al. How Water Advances on Superhydrophobic Surfaces. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2016, 116, 096101 . DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.096101 ]. After depositing small drops of water, Butt's group inclined their surfaces to initiate movement. They examined the contact between the water and structured surfaces with confocal microscopy. They observed that drops were suspended atop the protruding features and movement of water was different at the advancing and receding edges. At the advancing edge, the water interface descended downward and draped itself across the features. At the receding edge, water jumped from one feature to the next. As Butt and co-workers did not test their data against any existing model, that is done in this paper. Here, a previously proposed model that employs linear averaging at the contact line was adapted to their surfaces in an attempt to estimate their contact and sliding angles. Predictions from the model generally agreed with their experimental measurements.