The apparent contact angle of Cassie-Baxter state water droplets can be calculated by the existing theoretical formula, but due to the defects of the micro-structured hydrophobic surface and some inevitable tiny disturbances in the experiment, Cassie-Baxter state water droplets will appear partly in Wenzel state, that is, the mixed state water droplets. In this paper, apparent contact angles of Cassie-Baxter state and mixed state water droplets on micro-structured hydrophobic surfaces are compared. The research shows that if the projected area fraction of water-solid F in the Cassie-Baxter formula is replaced by the local projected area fraction of water-solid F′, the apparent contact angles of water droplets in both Cassie-Baxter state and the mixed state can be calculated. Further experimental results indicate that the contact state of water droplets nearby the outermost three-phase contact line plays a more important role in determining the apparent contact angle. This conclusion is significant to the understanding of the apparent contact angle and wetting property.
YANG ChangWei, HE Feng & HAO PengFei School of Aerospace, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
With a low surface energy, high apparent contact angle(>150°) and low sliding angle(<5°), superhy- drophobic surface has recently been attracting a great deal of attention. The true factor determining the sliding angle still remains unclear. In this paper, various superhydrophobic silicon surfaces with pillars are fabricated by photolithography and hydrophobized with octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS). Relations between sliding angles and micro-structured surfaces are being investigated in detail with 10 mg water droplets in C-B state and mixed state. Experimental pictures and data show that the sliding angle is independent of pillar heights from 20 to 80 μm, increasing the space between pillars causes decrease in sliding angle, and increasing the side lengths of pillars causes increase in sliding angle. Moreover, the sliding angle is irrelevant to the state of interfacial contact area of water-solid and lower contact line. It is concluded that the sliding angle of water droplet on the micro-structured surface is merely deter-mined by the upper contact line.
