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Wetting of superhydrophobic surfaces is studied as a multiscale process involving the macroscale (water droplet size), microscale (surface texture size), and nanoscale. It is shown that proper understanding of the contact angle hysteresis and the Cassie-Wenzel transition can be achieved and an apparent contradiction between the kinetic and thermodynamic descriptions can be resolved, if wetting is considered as a multiscale process. Macroscale parameters, such as the contact angle and contact angle hysteresis, cannot be determined from a closed set of macroscale equations, but depend also upon micro- and nanoscale parameters. The validity of the Wenzel and Cassie equations is discussed and generalized Wenzel and Cassie equations are proposed.
Citation
Langmuir
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
contact angle, superhydrophobic surfaces
Citation
Nosonovsky, M.
(2008),
Superhydrophibicity as a Multiscale Phenomenon, Langmuir
(Accessed December 26, 2024)