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Role of Multi-scale Hierarchical Structures in Regulating Wetting State and Wetting Properties of Structured Surfaces

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Abstract

Amplifying the intrinsic wettability of substrate material by changing the solid/liquid contact area is considered to be the main mechanism for controlling the wettability of rough or structured surfaces. Through theoretical analysis and experimental exploration, we have found that in addition to this wettability structure amplification effect, the surface structure also simultaneously controls surface wettability by regulating the wetting state via changing the threshold Young angles of the Cassie–Baxter and Wenzel wetting regions. This wetting state regulation effect provides us with an alternative strategy to overcome the inherent limitation in surface chemistry by tailoring surface structure. The wetting state regulation effect created by multi-scale hierarchical structures is quite significant and plays is a crucial role in promoting the superhydrophobicity, superhydrophilicity and the transition between these two extreme wetting properties, as well as stabilizing the Cassie–Baxter superhydrophobic state on the fabricated lotus-like hierarchically structured Cu surface and the natural lotus leaf.

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The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52105303 and 52025053), Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province (No. 20220101209JC), and Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52021003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130022, China

    Yue Jiang, Zhihui Zhang & Luquan Ren

  2. Hubei Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Microgrid, College of Electrical Engineering and New Energy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, 443002, China

    Xinyi Li

  3. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, China

    Zhichao Ma

  4. Centre for Additive Manufacturing, School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia

    Cuie Wen

  5. Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, China

    Zhonghao Jiang

  6. State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Nan Lin

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  1. Yue Jiang
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Contributions

Yue Jiang, Zhihui Zhang, Cuie Wen were involved in conceptualization and methodology; Yue Jiang, Xinyi Li, Zhichao Ma and Nan Lin were involved in data curation, writing-original draft, formal analysis, and visualization; Zhonghao Jiang helped in writing-review and editing; and Luquan Ren contributed to supervision.

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Correspondence to Zhihui Zhang.

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Jiang, Y., Li, X., Ma, Z. et al. Role of Multi-scale Hierarchical Structures in Regulating Wetting State and Wetting Properties of Structured Surfaces. J Bionic Eng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-024-00507-5

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