2014-11-28 | Tingyi "Leo" Liu and Chang-Jin "CJ" Kim
The paper "Turning a surface super-repellent even to completely wetting liquids" by Tingyi "Leo" Liu and Chang-Jin "CJ" Kim, published in *Science*, presents a novel approach to creating surfaces that can repel extremely low-energy liquids, such as fluorinated solvents, which typically wet any material. The authors demonstrate that roughness alone, when structured with a specific doubly re-entrant geometry, can achieve super-repellency regardless of the material's intrinsic wettability. They start with a completely wettable material (silica) and micro/nano-structure it to create a surface that is truly superomniphobic, capable of repelling even perfluorohexane. This superomniphobicity is confirmed for both metal and polymer surfaces. The silica surface also exhibits excellent durability, withstanding temperatures above 1000°C and resisting biofouling. The key to this super-repellency lies in the low liquid-solid contact fraction, which is achieved through the unique geometry of the surface structures. The study provides a theoretical framework and experimental validation to support these findings, highlighting the potential applications in various fields, including electronics cooling and biological systems.The paper "Turning a surface super-repellent even to completely wetting liquids" by Tingyi "Leo" Liu and Chang-Jin "CJ" Kim, published in *Science*, presents a novel approach to creating surfaces that can repel extremely low-energy liquids, such as fluorinated solvents, which typically wet any material. The authors demonstrate that roughness alone, when structured with a specific doubly re-entrant geometry, can achieve super-repellency regardless of the material's intrinsic wettability. They start with a completely wettable material (silica) and micro/nano-structure it to create a surface that is truly superomniphobic, capable of repelling even perfluorohexane. This superomniphobicity is confirmed for both metal and polymer surfaces. The silica surface also exhibits excellent durability, withstanding temperatures above 1000°C and resisting biofouling. The key to this super-repellency lies in the low liquid-solid contact fraction, which is achieved through the unique geometry of the surface structures. The study provides a theoretical framework and experimental validation to support these findings, highlighting the potential applications in various fields, including electronics cooling and biological systems.