Wetting behaviors of individual nanostructures

Tak Sing Wong, Adam Po Hao Huang, Chih Ming Ho

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Pinning of a liquid contact line by micro/nanoscale defects is attributed as the physical origin of macroscopic contact angle hysteresis. However, direct experimental quantification of the pinning effect at the nanoscale has yet to be fully explored to establish this link. Here we present an experimental technique to systematically investigate the wetting behaviors of individual hydrophilic nanostructures with diameters from 2000 nm down to 75 nm. Our results show that the macroscopic pinning behavior is preserved for nanostructures with dimensions down to ∼200 nm. In addition, the estimated depinning liquid contact angle at the nanoscale is in agreement with the macroscopic receding contact angle, which indicates a physical link between nanoscopic pinning to the macroscopic liquid receding phenomenon.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)6599-6603
Number of pages5
JournalLangmuir
Volume25
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 16 2009

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Surfaces and Interfaces
  • Spectroscopy
  • Electrochemistry

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