Eur. Phys. J. E (2008) 25: 139-152
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2007-10271-7

Regular Article

Nanodroplets on rough hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces

Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425, Jülich, Germany

^* e-mail: tartagli@sissa.it

Received: 27 October 2007
Accepted: 16 January 2008
Published online: 3 March 2008

Abstract

We present results of Molecular Dynamics (MD) calculations on the behavior of liquid nanodroplets on rough hydrophobic and hydrophilic solid surfaces. On hydrophobic surfaces, the contact angle for nanodroplets depends strongly on the root-mean-square roughness amplitude, but it is nearly independent of the fractal dimension of the surface. Since increasing the fractal dimension increases the short-wavelength roughness, while the long-wavelength roughness is almost unchanged, we conclude that for hydrophobic interactions the short-wavelength (atomistic) roughness is not very important. We show that the nanodroplet is in a Cassie-like state. For rough hydrophobic surfaces, there is no contact angle hysteresis due to strong thermal fluctuations, which occur at the liquid-solid interface on the nanoscale. On hydrophilic surfaces, however, there is strong contact angle hysteresis due to higher energy barrier. These findings may be very important for the development of artificially biomimetic superhydrophobic surfaces.