Effects of Gas Layer Thickness on Capillary Interactions at Superhydrophobic Surfaces

No Thumbnail Available

Access rights

openAccess

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2024-03-05

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

10

Series

Langmuir, Volume 40, issue 9, pp. 4801-4810

Abstract

Strongly attractive forces act between superhydrophobic surfaces across water due to the formation of a bridging gas capillary. Upon separation, the attraction can range up to tens of micrometers as the gas capillary grows, while gas molecules accumulate in the capillary. We argue that most of these molecules come from the pre-existing gaseous layer found at and within the superhydrophobic coating. In this study, we investigate how the capillary size and the resulting capillary forces are affected by the thickness of the gaseous layer. To this end, we prepared superhydrophobic coatings with different thicknesses by utilizing different numbers of coating cycles of a liquid flame spraying technique. Laser scanning confocal microscopy confirmed an increase in gas layer thickness with an increasing number of coating cycles. Force measurements between such coatings and a hydrophobic colloidal probe revealed attractive forces caused by bridging gas capillaries, and both the capillary size and the range of attraction increased with increasing thickness of the pre-existing gas layer. Hence, our data suggest that the amount of available gas at and in the superhydrophobic coating determines the force range and capillary growth.

Description

Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society

Keywords

Other note

Citation

Eriksson, M, Claesson, P M, Järn, M, Wallqvist, V, Tuominen, M, Kappl, M, Teisala, H, Vollmer, D, Schoelkopf, J, Gane, P A C, Mäkelä, J M & Swerin, A 2024, ' Effects of Gas Layer Thickness on Capillary Interactions at Superhydrophobic Surfaces ', Langmuir, vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 4801-4810 . https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c03709