Golden section criterion to achieve droplet trampoline effect on metal-based superhydrophobic surface

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 6572
• Main Authors: Zhao, Shengteng, Ma, Zhichao, Song, Mingkai, Tan, Libo, Zhao, Hongwei, Ren, Luquan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 18-10-2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 147/135; 639/166/988; 639/766/189; Ablation; Active control; Deicing; Design criteria; Droplets; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrophobic surfaces; Hydrophobicity; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Surface structure; Weber number; Wettability
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42375-3

Clarifying the consecutive droplet rebound mechanisms can provide scientific inspirations to regulate dynamic wettability of superhydrophobic surface, which facilitates the practical applications on efficient heat control and active anti-icing. Generally, droplet rebound behaviors are directly affected by surface structure and Weber number. Here, we report a novel “golden section” design criterion to regulate the droplet rebound number determined by the structure spacing, subverting conventional knowledge. Especially, the droplet can continuously rebound for 17 times on the metal-based surface, exhibiting an amazing phenomenon of “droplet trampoline”. The droplet rebound number has been experimentally revealed to be closely related to Weber number. We propose novel quantitative formulas to predict droplet rebound number and clarify the coupling effect of the structure spacing and the Weber number on the rebound mechanisms, which can be utilized to establish the regulation criteria of rebound numbers and develop novel metal-based superhydrophobic materials.
The relation between the rebound behavior of droplets and surface structure is crucial to regulating the surface dynamic wettability based on structure design. Zhao et al. explore droplet rebound numbers when the droplet impacts laser-ablated microstructures with different structure spaces and report that droplets can consecutively rebound 17 times.