Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. Schematic close up showing surfaces decorated by (a) flat topped square pillars for which
f 1 = f and f 2 = ( 1 f) , (b) the general case of an arbitrary surface with rough pillar tops, for which
f 1 = f and f 2 = ( 1 f) .
=
f 2 cos 180
cos θ c =
f 1 cos θ y +
f( cos θ y +
1 )
1
,
(3b)
See text
where θ c is the Cassie contact angle. The weighting factors, f m ,arethe total areas
of each of the m materials under the drop, normalized by the total projected area.
As such, m f m
1. If a surface is rough and air is trapped under the drop, the
trapped air can be treated as a surface with θ y =
180 , as illustrated in Eq. (3b). This
is often employed to explain the superhydrophobicity of certain rough surfaces.
Naive applications of Eq. (3b) express f 1 as f and f 2 as ( 1
f) , with f defined
as the projected solid-liquid area under the drop normalized by the total projected
area. Obviously then, f
1. This simplification neglects the roughness of
the solid-liquid interface and the curvature of the liquid-vapor interface under the
drop, and is only valid for the case of flat topped pillars as seen in Fig. 1a. A more
general case of rough pillar tops is shown in Fig. 1b, for which f 1 =
+
( 1
f)
=
f and f 2 =
( 1
f) . To consider the difference in another way, consider what Cassie and Baxter
wrote [30]: “When [ f 2 is zero] equation (3b) * reduces to Wenzel's equation for the
apparent contact angle of a rough surface with the roughness factor f 1 ”. Further,
if f 2 =
1, the Cassie equation reduces to the Young equation. This
idea will be considered later in the analysis of superhydrophobic surface wetting by
surfactant solutions, and in discussed in reference [31].
A given surface topography will have f 1 , f 2 and r values. The question of which
mode a drop will take is an interesting one. Following a similar strategy to Bico et
al . [32], one can combine Eqs (2) and (3), to yield:
0and f 1 =
f 2
f 1
.
cos θ cr =
(4)
r
Equation (4) suggests that the wetting mode will be Cassie or Wenzel depending
whether Young's (intrinsic) contact angle (controlled by liquid chemistry for a given
* In reference [30], Eq. (3) of this chapter (denoted as Eq. (5) in reference [30]) is what has become known
as the Cassie equation. Further, Cassie and Baxter only considered a two material surface in their model.
 
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