Wetting Dynamics of Hydrophobic and Structured Surfaces: Faraday Discussions No 146(Volume 146 Faraday Discussions)

The aim of this meeting was to convene scientists from experimental and theoretical disciplines to discuss a number of highly topical and controversial issues related to wetting and dewetting at hydrophobic surfaces. The current interest in superhydrophobic surfaces has led to a conceptual widening of the term "hydrophobicity". Non-wetting of a surface may be achieved not only by minimising the surface free energy, but also via an appropriately tailored surface morphology. As a consequence, even low-energy liquids may dewet a surface and hydrophobicity becomes a more general "lyophobicity". Wetting dynamics at both smooth and structured surfaces is involved in a range of surface phenomena, including contact angle hysteresis, adhesion, surface forces, self-cleaning and the boundary conditions for fluid flow. This very active area of current research has major cross-disciplinary implications, and a number of theoretical, modelling and experimental results are in urgent need of clarification and resolution if we are to understand better the properties and behaviour of extended and structured hydrophobic and lyophobic surfaces. Physical chemists, biologists, materials scientists and nanotechnologists have benefited from attending this meeting, and its printed discussion.

Table of Contents:
Exploring nanoscale hydrophobic hydration Dynamical superhydrophobicity Superhydrophobic surfaces by hybrid raspberry-like particles Microscopic shape and contact angle measurement at a superhydrophobic surface Transparent superhydrophobic and highly oleophobic coatings The influence of molecular-scale roughness on the surface spreading of an aqueous nanodrop General Discussion Contact angle hysteresis: a different view and a trivial recipe for low hysteresis hydrophobic surfaces Amplification of electro-osmotic flows by wall slippage: direct measurements on OTS-surfaces Electrowetting and droplet impalement experiments on superhydrophobic multiscale structures Macroscopically flat and smooth superhydrophobic surfaces: Heating induced wetting transitions up to the Leidenfrost temperature Drop dynamics on hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces Dynamic mean field theory of condensation and evaporation processes for fluids in porous materials: Application to partial drying and drying Molecular dynamics simulations of urea–water binary droplets on flat and pillared hydrophobic surfaces General Discussion First- and second-order wetting transitions at liquid–vapor interfaces Hierarchical surfaces: an in situ investigation into nano and micro scale wettability An experimental study of interactions between droplets and a nonwetting microfluidic capillary Hydrophobic interactions in model enclosures from small to large length scales: non-additivity in explicit and implicit solvent models Hydrophobic interactions in model enclosures from small to large length scales: non-additivity in explicit and implicit solvent models General Discussion The search for the hydrophobic force law The effect of counterions on surfactant-hydrophobized surfaces Hydrophobic forces in the wetting films of water formed on xanthate-coated gold surfaces Interfacial thermodynamics of confined water near molecularly rough surfaces Mapping hydrophobicity at the nanoscale: Applications to heterogeneous surfaces and proteins General Discussion Concluding remarks FD 146: Answers and questions

About the Author :
Faraday Discussions documents a long-established series of Faraday Discussion meetings which provide a unique international forum for the exchange of views and newly acquired results in developing areas of physical chemistry, biophysical chemistry and chemical physics. The papers presented are published in the Faraday Discussion volume together with a record of the discussion contributions made at the meeting. Faraday Discussions therefore provide an important record of current international knowledge and views in the field concerned. The latest (2012) impact factor of Faraday Discussions is 3.82.