Spontaneous Transport Mechanics of Water Droplets under a Synergistic Action of Designed Pattern and Non-Wetting Gradient

The controllable spontaneous transport of water droplets on solid surfaces has a broad application background in daily life. Herein, a patterned surface with two different non-wetting characteristics was developed to control the droplet transport behavior. Consequently, the patterned surface exhibited great water-repellant properties in the superhydrophobic region, and the water contact angle reached 160 degrees +/- 0.2 degrees. Meanwhile, the water contact angle on the wedge-shaped hydrophilic region dropped to 22 degrees after UV irradiation treatment. On this basis, the maximum transport distance of water droplets could be observed on the sample surface with a small wedge angle of 5 degrees (10.62 mm), and the maximum average transport velocity of droplets was obtained on the sample surface with a large wedge angle of 10 degrees (218.01 mm/s). In terms of spontaneous droplet transport on an inclined surface (4 degrees), both the 8 mu L droplet and 50 mu L droplet could move upward against gravity, which showed that the sample surface possessed an obvious driving force for droplet transport. Surface non-wetting gradient and the wedge-shaped pattern provided unbalanced surface tension to produce the driving forces in the process of droplet transport, and the Laplace pressure as well is produced inside the water droplet during this process. This work provides a new strategy to develop a patterned superhydrophobic surface for droplet transport.

Automated summary

In this study, a patterned surface with two different non-wetting characteristics was developed to control the transport behavior of water droplets. The surface exhibited excellent water-repellant properties in the superhydrophobic region, with a water contact angle of 160 degrees. The maximum transport distance and average transport velocity of droplets were observed on different wedge-shaped surfaces, indicating the driving force provided by the surface for droplet transport. The surface non-wetting gradient and wedge-shaped pattern created unbalanced surface tension and generated Laplace pressure inside the water droplet during the transport process.