Rigid-flexible hybrid surfaces for water-repelling and abrasion-resisting


Date

2023-04

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric

Data

Abstract

Droplets impacting solid superhydrophobic surfaces is appealing not only because of scientific interests but also for technological applications such as water-repelling. Recent studies have designed artificial surfaces in a rigid-flexible hybrid mode to combine asymmetric redistribution and structural oscillation water-repelling principles, resolving strict impacting positioning; however, this is limited by weak mechanical durability. Here we propose a rigid-flexible hybrid surface (RFS) design as a matrix of concave flexible trampolines barred by convex rigid stripes. Such a surface exhibits a 20.1% contact time reduction via the structural oscillation of flexible trampolines, and even to break through the theoretical inertial-capillary limit via the asymmetric redistribution induced by rigid stripes. Moreover, the surface is shown to retain the above water-repelling after 1,000 abrasion cycles against oilstones under a normal load as high as 0.2 N.mm(-1). This is the first demonstration of RFSs for synchronous waterproof and wearproof, approaching real-world applications of liquid-repelling.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Journal / series

Volume

11 (4)

Pages / Article No.

635 - 646

Publisher

Springer

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

surface; droplet impact; hydrophobic; abrasion

Organisational unit

03914 - deMello, Andrew / deMello, Andrew

Notes

Funding

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