Surface Tension and Viscosity Dependence of Slip Length over Irregularly Structured Superhydrophobic Surfaces

A comprehensive understanding of the slip phenomenon on liquid/solid interfaces is essential for multiple real-world applications of superhydrophobic materials, especially those involving drag reduction. In the current contribution, the so-called "slip-length" on an irregularly structured superhydrophobic surface was systematically evaluated, with respect to varying liquid surface tension and viscosity. The superhydrophobic polymer-nanoparticle composite (SPNC) material used exhibits a dual-scale surface roughness and was fabricated via coating a surface with a mixture of polydimethylsiloxane solution and functionalized silica particles. A cone-and-plate rheometric device was employed to quantify the slip length. To independently study the impact of surface tension and viscosity, three types of aqueous solutions were used: sodium dodecyl sulfate, ethanol, and polyethylene glycol. Our experimental results demonstrate that a decreasing surface tension results in a decreasing slip length when the fluid viscosity is held constant. Meanwhile, the slip length is shown to increase with increasing viscosity when the surface tension of the various liquids is matched to isolate effects. The study reveals a linear relationship between slip length and both capillary length and viscosity providing a reference to potentially predict the degree of achievable drag reduction for differing fluids on SPNC surfaces.