Sliding behavior of water droplets on line-patterned hydrophobic surfaces

We prepared line-patterned hydrophobic surfaces using fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) and octadecyltrimethoxysilane (ODS) then investigated the effect of line direction on sliding behavior of water droplets by direct observation of the actual droplet motion during sliding. Water droplets slide down with a periodic large deformation of the contact line and sliding velocity fluctuation that occurred when they crossed over the 500-mu m ODS line regions in FAS regions on a Si surface tilted at 35 degrees. These behaviors are less marked for motion on a 100-mu m line surface, or on lines oriented parallel to the slope direction. Smaller droplets slide down with greater displacement in the line direction on 500-mu m line patterning when the lines were rotated at 13 degrees in-plane for the slope direction. This sliding behavior depended on the droplet size and rotation angle, and is accountable by the balance between gravitational and retentive forces. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.