Superwicking on Nanoporous Micropillared Surfaces

Engineering surfaces with excellent wicking properties is of critical importance to a wide range of applications. Here, we report a facile method to create superhydrophilic nanoporous micropillared surfaces of silicon and their applicability to superwicking. Nanopores with a good control of the pore depth are realized over the entire surface of three-dimensional micropillar structures by electrochemical etching in hydrofluoric acid. After rinsing in hydrogen peroxide, the nanoporous micropillared surface shows superhydrophilicity with the superwicking effect. The entire spreading process of a water droplet on the superhydrophilic nanoporous micropillared surface is completed in less than 50 ms, with an average velocity of 91.2 mm/s, which is significantly faster than the other wicking surfaces reported. Owing to the presence of nanopores on the micropillar array, the wicking dynamics is distinct from the surfaces decorated only by micropillar arrays. The spreading dynamics of a water droplet shows two distinct processes simultaneously, including the capillary penetration between micropillars and the capillary imbibition into the nanopore's interior. The wicking dynamics can be described by the two stages separated by the time when the contact line starts to recede. The transition between the two wicking regimes is due to the increasing effect of the imbibition of the bulk droplet by the nanopores. While a similar transition of the wicking dynamics is shown on the surfaces with different pore depths, the nanopore structure with a greater depth causes a greater amount of imbibition to slow down the spreading and promote superwicking.