Large-Area Fabrication of Droplet Pancake Bouncing Surface and Control of Bouncing State

Abstract

Superhydrophobic pillar arrays, which can generate the droplet pancake bouncing phenomenon with reduced liquid-solid contact time, have huge application prospects in anti-icing of aircraft wings from freezing rain. However, the previously reported pillar arrays, suitable for obtaining pancake bouncing, have a diameter ≤100 μm and height-diameter ratio >10, which are difficult to fabricate over a large area. Here, we have systematically studied the influence of the dimension of the superhydrophobic pillar arrays on the bouncing dynamics of water droplets. We show that the typical pancake bouncing with 57.8% reduction in contact time with the surface was observed on the superhydrophobic pillar arrays with 1.05 mm diameter, 0.8 mm height, and 0.25 mm space. Such pillar arrays with millimeter diameter and <1 height-diameter ratio can be easily fabricated over large areas. Further, a simple replication-spraying method was developed for the large-area fabrication of the superhydrophobic pillar arrays to induce pancake bouncing. No sacrificial layer was needed to reduce the adhesion in the replication processes. Since the bouncing dynamics were rather sensitive to the space between the pillars, a method to control the contact time, bouncing shape, horizontal bouncing direction, and reversible switch between pancake bouncing and conventional bouncing was realized by adjusting the inclination angle of the shape memory polymer pillars.