Super-hydrophobic, highly adhesive, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces

[Display omitted] ► The facile fabrication of a super-hydrophobic, adhesive surface has been accomplished with a simple templating technique. ► Polymer surface exhibits a static, aqueous, contact angle of >153.5°. ► The adhesive surface will allow a 25μL drop to be suspended from it when inverted. ► The system mimics the water interaction behavior of the rose petal. Super-hydrophobic surfaces have been fabricated by casting polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on a textured substrate of known surface topography, and were characterized using contact angle, atomic force microscopy, surface free energy calculations, and adhesion measurements. The resulting PDMS has a micro-textured surface with a static contact angle of 153.5° and a hysteresis of 27° when using de-ionized water. Unlike many super-hydrophobic materials, the textured PDMS is highly adhesive, allowing water drops as large as 25.0μL to be inverted. This high adhesion, super-hydrophobic behavior is an illustration of the “petal effect”. This rapid, reproducible technique has promising applications in transport and analysis of microvolume samples.