Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 46: P11: Wetting, Micro and Nano Fluidics

CPP 46.5: Poster

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 10:00–13:00, Poster A

Super Liquid-Repellency: Mechanical Robustness vs. Repellency — •Maxime Paven, Frank Schellenberger, Michael Kappl, Doris Vollmer, and Hans-Jürgen Butt — Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany

So-called super liquid-repellent - or superamphiphobic - layers cannot only repel water but also many low surface tension liquids like soap solutions, hexadecane or organic compounds. Superamphiphobic surfaces have various potential applications ranging from self-cleaning solar cells to anti-biofouling medical devices. Next to a simple fabrication method, the mechanical robustness and durability of these layers is mandatory. Recently, our group developed a facile surface preparation technique to fabricate superamphiphobic layers, based on a fractal-like network of hydrophobized nanometer sized silica spheres. Considering the surface morphology, a simplified theoretical approach predicts, that the mechanical robustness and liquid repellency cannot be increased at the same time. We studied the interplay between mechanical robustness and repellency experimentally. By tuning the reaction parameters, surfaces with varying mechanical and wetting properties were obtained. The elastic and plastic responses of these layers were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Therefore, a colloid was attached to a cantilever and force versus distance curves were recorded and analyzed. The wetting properties were assessed by measuring the receding and tilting angle of hexadecane on these surfaces. We observed that an improvement of the mechanical robustness was accompanied with a decrease of the liquid repellency.