Understanding the petal effect: Wetting properties and surface structure of natural rose petals and rose
Sergio Parra-Vicente1, Pablo F Ibáñez-Ibáñez1, Miguel Cabrerizo-Vílchez1
1Laboratory of Surface and Interface Physics, Department of Applied Physics, University of Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva, Granada ES-18071, Spain.
Abstract:
The petal effect is identified as a non-wetting state with high drop adhesion. The wetting behavior of petal surfaces is attributed to the papillose structure of their epidermis, which leads to a Cassie-Baxter regime combined with strong pinning sites. Under this scenario, sessile drops are pearl shaped and, unlike lotus-like surfaces, firmly attached to the surface. Petal surfaces are used as inspiration for the fabrication of functional parahydrophobic surfaces such as antibacterial or water-harvesting surfaces. In this work, two types of rose petals were replicated by using a templating technique based in Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanocasting. The topographic structure, the condensation mechanism under saturated environments and the wetting properties of the natural rose petal and their negative and positive replicas were analyzed. Finally, we performed prospective ice adhesion studies to elucidate whether petal-like surfaces may be used as deicing solutions.
Related Concept Videos
Surface Tension of Fluid
Surface tension varies...
Surface Tension, Capillary Action, and Viscosity
The various IMFs between identical molecules of a substance are examples of cohesive forces. The molecules within a liquid are surrounded by other molecules and are attracted equally in all directions by the cohesive forces within the liquid. However, the molecules on the surface of a liquid are attracted only by about one-half as many molecules. Because of the unbalanced molecular attractions on the surface molecules, liquids contract to form a shape that minimizes the number...
Surface Tension and Surface Energy
Consider a beaker filled with liquid. The bulk molecules in the liquid experience equal attractive forces on all sides with the surrounding molecules. However, the surface molecules experience a net attractive force downward due to the bulk molecules. The surface of the liquid behaves like a stretched membrane,...
Adhesion
Capillary action is a result of water’s adhesive tendencies. When a narrow...
Rise of Liquid in a Capillary Tube


