Water Drop Friction on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

To investigate water drop friction on superhydrophobic surfaces, the motion of water drops on three different superhydrophobic surfaces has been studied by allowing drops to slide down an incline and capturing their motion using high-speed video. Two surfaces were prepared using crystallization of an alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) wax, and the third surface was the leaf of a Lotus (Nelumbo Nucifera). The acceleration of the water droplets on these superhydrophobic surfaces was measured as a function of droplet size and inclination of the surface. For small capillary numbers, we propose that the energy dissipation is dominated by intermittent pinning–depinning transitions at microscopic pinning sites along the trailing contact line of the drop, while at capillary numbers exceeding a critical value, energy dissipation is dominated by circulatory flow in the vicinity of the contacting disc between the droplet and the surface. By combining the results of the droplet acceleration with a theoretical model based on energy dissipation, we have introduced a material-specific coefficient called the superhydrophobic sliding resistance, b sh. Once determined, this parameter is sufficient for predicting the motion of water drops on superhydrophobic surfaces of a general macroscopic topography. This theory also infers the existence of an equilibrium sliding angle, βeq, at which the drop acceleration is zero. This angle is decreasing with the radius of the drop and is in quantitative agreement with the measured tilt angles required for a stationary drop to start sliding down an incline.