Droplet Dynamics on Nanostructured Doubly Reentrant Surfaces

Abstract

A nanostructured surface is proposed for potential application of anti-icing. This surface integrates microcavities with doubly reentrant nanostructures which can simultaneously enhance static repellency and dynamic pressure resistance. This surface is inspired by the skin structure of a spring tail which can survive even in oil and ethenal. We fabricated nanostructures with overhanging edge which exhibited great wetting resistance ability. It is found that when a droplet impacting on different surfaces, the newly fabricated nanostructured doubly reentrant surface shows a shortest contact duration in comparison with other surfaces. Therefore, the nucleation for icing on a cold doubly reentrant nanostructures is depressed and the surface shows icephobic property. Our new structure showed great wetting resistance ability in both static and dynamic conditions, under low temperature and the theoretical analysis accorded with the existing simulation work. The decrease of contact time for the new surface also gave the potential in applications like anti-icing in the future.