Quantum vacuum photon-modes and superhydrophobicity

Abstract

Nanostructures are commonly used for developing superhydrophobic surfaces. However, available wetting theoretical models ignore the effect of vacuum photon-modes alteration on van der Waals forces and thus on hydrophobicity. Using first-principle calculations, we show that superhydrophibicity of nanostructured surfaces is dramatically enhanced by vacuum photon-modes tuning. As a case study, wetting contact angles of a water droplet above a polyethylene nanostructured surface are obtained from the interaction potential energy calculated as function of the droplet-surface separation distance. This new approach could pave the way for the design of novel superhydrophobic coatings.

5 pages, 4 figures, final version published in Physical Review Letters

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Cited by in corpus (5)

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• Molding Wetting by Laser-Induced Nanostructures
• Quantum vacuum photon modes and repulsive Lifshitz-van der Waals interactions
• Thermal-induced stress of plasmonic magnetic nanocomposites
• Towards an experimental proof of superhydrophobicity enhanced by quantum fluctuations freezing on a broadband-absorber metamaterial