Investigation of Cassie-Wenzel Wetting transitions on microstructured surfaces

Understanding the physical mechanism of wetting transitions is crucial for the design of highly stable superhydrophobic materials. Wetting transitions from Cassie state to Wenzel state on microstructured surfaces were investigated in this article. The pinning force tau was introduced to establish a new mechanical equilibrium, obtaining the model of critical pressure p (c) of Cassie-Wenzel wetting transition and the model was qualitatively verified by performing a series of experiments. Using the model of p (c) and experimental data, the pinning force tau on different microstructured surfaces was obtained.