Nanowerk October 23, 2023 Surface heterogeneity is generally acknowledged as the major cause of increased contact angle hysteresis and contact line friction of droplets. An international team of researchers (Finland, Japan) have shown that tuning the coverage of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), water contact angles changed gradually from about 10° to 110° yet contact angle hysteresis and contact line friction were low for the low-coverage hydrophilic SAMs as well as high-coverage hydrophobic SAMs. Their slipperiness was not expected based on the substantial chemical heterogeneity of the SAMs featuring uncoated areas of the substrate well beyond the size of a water molecule […]
Tag Archives: Hydrophobic surface
A new approach to liquid-repelling surfaces
MIT News November 1, 2018 Omniphobic surfaces can fail during condensation. Researchers at MIT have developed a nanostructured surface that consists of isolated reentrant cavities with a pitch on the order of 100 nm to prevent droplets from nucleating and spreading within all structures. They developed a model to guide surface design and subsequently fabricated and tested these surfaces with various liquids. They demonstrated repellency to 10 °C below the dew point and showed durability over 3 weeks. The work provides important insights for achieving robust, omniphobic surfaces…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE