Unraveling the Salvinia paradox: design principles for submerged superhydrophobicity

Abstract

The complex structure of the Salvinia molesta is investigated via rare event molecular dynamics simulations. Results show that a hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterning together with a re-entrant geometry control the free energy barriers for bubble nucleation and for the Cassie-Wenzel transition. This natural paradigm is translated into simple macroscopic design criteria for engineering robust superhydrophobicity in submerged applications.

References in corpus (1)

• Mechanism of the Cassie-Wenzel transition via the atomistic and continuum string methods

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Wetting and cavitation pathways on nanodecorated surfaces
• Collapse of superhydrophobicity on nanopillared surfaces
• Intrusion and extrusion of a liquid on nanostructured surfaces